Chapter 310 - 171: I Will Attack Directly Upon Entering the Final 3km Steep Climb (Part 2)

All these cyclists were, without a doubt, either former top stars or current hot contenders.

As for the title-favorite UAE Team, besides Pogačar, they also had Bjerg, Maïga, Novak, and Morano, among others.

"I’m so jealous of these guys. I wonder when I’ll get to ride in a Grand Tour!"

In a rented apartment near Bora Headquarters, Huang Chong, who wasn’t competing, was staying behind to train and watch the Giro d’Italia, his tone unconsciously betraying his envy.

Chen Junyi was also by his side, watching the race with him during the live broadcast instead of attending to her own studies and work.

She had followed Huang Chong all over for his races, so by now she was, of course, thoroughly familiar with the culture and atmosphere of cycling in Europe.

But whether it was other stage races or one-day classics, their atmosphere couldn’t compare to that of a Grand Tour.

So, of course, she could understand Huang Chong’s eagerness to get on the course himself.

For a Professional Road Cyclist, earning points in a Grand Tour might not be the most efficient use of effort, but whether or not a cyclist can achieve results in a Grand Tour is the true cornerstone for measuring their worth.

She said comfortingly,

"You’ll definitely have a chance this year. It’s just that to participate in the Giro d’Italia, you have to sacrifice some of the other spring races.

Your race schedule at the beginning of the year was too packed.

If the team had really sent you to the Giro d’Italia, you might not have been selected for the Tour de France roster. A person’s energy is finite, after all.

This year, to compete in two Grand Tours, didn’t Pogačar even skip the Tour of Flanders, one of the five major classics?

This season, you’ve already raced five top-tier one-day races and two top-tier stage races. Going to the Giro d’Italia after all that would be too exhausting."

Huang Chong nodded. He agreed with that.

Without the system’s recovery potions, he really couldn’t just activate ’god mode’ anymore.

Besides, on the World Tour, if a Professional Cyclist has a highly packed race schedule and is always in peak form, the media pressure would become immense.

After all, trolls in Europe and around the world would immediately bring up the sport’s old tradition of doping, and he’d inevitably be subjected to all sorts of testing.

"Well, I can only hope the team puts me on the main roster for the remaining two Grand Tours.

I performed so well this spring, and I got most of the team’s victories. They can’t just not let me ride in a single Grand Tour!"

As Huang Chong watched the end of the second stage of the Giro d’Italia, where Pogačar securely claimed the pink leader’s jersey, he smiled and said,

"But that Giro d’Italia pink jersey really is beautiful. If I perform well in the second half of the season, I’m going to ask to race the Giro next year!"

Chen Junyi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

She had thought of all sorts of reasons for Huang Chong to want to ride a Grand Tour.

But she had never imagined that his biggest reason would be, of all things, a fondness for the Giro d’Italia’s pink leader’s jersey.

But in reality, she didn’t know that Huang Chong wanted to race the Giro d’Italia next year purely because he knew the roster of competitors in advance.

Riders like Pogačar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel wouldn’t be participating.

In the end, Del Toro from the UAE Team and Simon Yates, who wouldn’t join the Visma Team until the 2025 season, would be the ones going head-to-head at the Giro d’Italia.

With a general classification lineup like that, if he didn’t go and take advantage of the opportunity—to win his favorite pink leader’s jersey with minimal effort—it would be a complete waste of his status as a reincarnator.

"You can just decide on your own race schedule.

If you can secure a solid spot on the main roster this year, you’ll have the power to choose your own races.

Then in the future, you should definitely participate in the races you actually enjoy.

However, during the Giro d’Italia this year, the team needs to compete on two fronts. Before he left for Italy, Aldag already scheduled you for a Pro Level multi-day race: the Tour of Hungary.

The race is from May 8th to the 12th. You need to familiarize yourself with the course terrain and the participating teams. You leave with the team tomorrow."

Huang Chong wasn’t at all dissatisfied to hear he was going to a Pro Level multi-day race.

As long as it was a race in Europe, every multi-day race was prestigious.

The main reason was the course design, which was completely different from races back home—there weren’t as many easy flat stages where you could just cruise.

Although the points for the overall winner at a Pro Level event were pitifully low—only 200—for a newcomer like him looking to use racing as a form of training, it was the perfect stage.

Huang Chong took the tablet Chen Junyi handed him and saw that the Tour of Hungary was a five-day race.

But the course profile for this race was, without a doubt, very suitable for him.

Stages 1, 2, and 4 were flat-finish sprints, but Stages 3 and 5 were mountaintop finishes.

Moreover, the final climbs in those two stages were also very difficult.

As for the participating teams and riders, the biggest name wasn’t him, of course, but Mark Cavendish from the Astana Team.

His biggest rivals for the general classification included Thibaut Nis from the Trek Team, Walter Poels from the Bahrain Victory Team, and Diego Ulissi and Marc Hirschi from the UAE Team.

As for those two guys from the UAE Team, Huang Chong was now as familiar with them as he could possibly be.

Ever since the Milan-Turin Race, their race schedules had frequently overlapped.

But without exception, he had won every time. He had completely dominated them; they were no longer on the same level as him.

After looking at the roster of cyclists, Huang Chong had a very clear idea of what he could achieve in this race. He couldn’t help but smile and shake his head as he added, "I don’t know why, but after competing in the Liège Race, racing in a Pro Level event like this... it honestly feels like an unfair fight!"