Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Chen Junyi noticed that Huang Chong had been silent the entire trip, just staring off into space, and she knew exactly why he was acting so strangely.

That was the thing about being too perceptive—it was easy to read people and guess what was on their minds.

Objectively speaking, she was also a little unhappy with her father’s behavior.

After all, Huang Chong had come to visit with the best of intentions. For her father to put on his stern "Director Zhang" face without even trying to understand the situation was more than a little inhospitable.

And look what it had done to the poor guy. He’d been lost in thought the entire trip, not saying a word.

"We’re here."

After parking the car, Chen Junyi broke the silence. She thought for a moment before adding a question for Huang Chong.

"Are you okay?"

The sound of her voice snapped Huang Chong back to reality. He smiled at her and said,

"I’m fine. I was just thinking about something. Are we in Shanghai already?"

"Uh... I’ve been driving for two hours straight!"

Chen Junyi gave him a strange look and continued,

"You really don’t have to worry about it. My dad’s just like that—he seems cold on the outside, but he’s actually warm-hearted.

A lot of people aren’t used to it the first time they meet him. It’s easy to get intimidated by his stern expression.

But once you get to know him, he’s actually really easy to talk to."

Hearing her try to console him, Huang Chong waved his hand dismissively.

"No, no—I’m really fine. I wasn’t spacing out because of your dad. I was just thinking about what my mentor told me last night."

"Uncle Zhang? Did you go to his house to pay a New Year’s visit? What did he tell you?"

Chen Junyi asked, her face full of curiosity.

"He said that since I won both national championships last year, I’ve apparently made a bit of a name for myself in the pro-cycling world. So this year, all the domestic cyclists will have their eyes on me, and they might even come up with specific tactics to use against me."

Huang Chong had no reason to hide anything from Chen Junyi, so he went on,

"’I was just wondering, if it’s really like my mentor said, then shouldn’t I push myself a lot harder in the upcoming training camp? I can’t just follow the standard training regimen like everyone else.

After all, you can only improve so much with conventional training.

And the best way to break through their targeted tactics is to be so overwhelmingly strong that none of their schemes can touch me. Don’t you agree?’"

"What do you mean by that?"

Chen Junyi didn’t quite follow what Huang Chong was saying. She frowned and asked,

"Do you have a personal training plan in mind?"

Huang Chong did have a few bold ideas. ’But,’ he thought, ’I’m not ready to talk about them yet.’ He just replied,

"No rush. I’ll join the training camp and follow the team’s program first. We’ll see how intense their training is."

After that, they parked the car and went into the team headquarters together.

In China, most Intercontinental Teams operate on limited budgets, relying heavily on sponsorships for their commercial operations. The Hengxiang Team was no exception.

Furthermore, the team owner, Coach Li, had only recently moved the team to Shanghai. A lot of their original training equipment had been left behind in Shandong, meaning they were essentially starting from scratch. Naturally, money was even tighter.

After they entered, a staff member showed them around the headquarters. Huang Chong quickly discovered that in terms of scale, it was nothing compared to a provincial team’s cycling center.

’But that was to be expected,’ he thought.

As an Intercontinental Team, besides Coach Li serving as his own team manager, they had to spend money hiring professionals for roles like sports director, trainer, Mechanician, masseur, and translator. On top of that, they had to pay the cyclists’ salaries, so the budget was bound to be tight.

Still, from Coach Li’s perspective, he was genuinely surprised that Huang Chong was willing to join the Hengxiang Team.

Hengxiang was simply no match for a team like Huaxing, which had official government backing.

Normally, if a team like that extended an olive branch to a cyclist, it was basically a guarantee that the cyclist would be selected for the National Team. No one in their right mind would choose Hengxiang instead.

In fact, for the past few years, the standard procedure had been that whenever Hengxiang developed a good cyclist—like Lü Xianjing from the Yunnan Team—they would be funneled to the superior Huaxing Team.

Or they’d be sent off to various provincial and city-level teams. The flow of talent never went in the opposite direction.

This was the reality for China’s Intercontinental Teams. In a way, they were a tier below the provincial teams.

The root of the issue was that the state-run system was always prioritized over private entities.

Of course, the Intercontinental Teams had their own advantages—namely, their backing from the UCI.

This was why many provincial teams sent their star cyclists to Intercontinental Teams, using them as a vehicle to gain experience in high-level UCI-sanctioned races.

For instance, the Hengxiang Team’s current core cyclist, Brother Xiaoma, had been sent over by the Guangdong Team specifically for intensive training and development.

After Huang Chong and Chen Junyi finished their tour of the base, Coach Li, who had been busy elsewhere, rushed back to meet them, offering a warm welcome.

He had no doubts about their abilities; his team had scored a major coup by getting them.

Huang Chong’s strength spoke for itself—a double national champion with limitless potential.

An all-around GC Cyclist who could compete in both time trials and road races, showing up on his doorstep for him to develop—it was an unexpected windfall, the kind of thing you could only chalk up to fate.

As for Chen Junyi, besides the dual roles she’d applied for—Data Analyst and nutritionist—her excellent foreign language skills from her time studying abroad meant she could easily work as a translator, too.

Of course, if he actually asked her to do translation work, he would definitely have to pay her more.

Following a simple welcoming ceremony, Coach Li, being the direct and straightforward person he was, immediately handed Huang Chong a printout of the entire year’s race schedule, wanting him to be mentally prepared for what was to come.