Chapter 313 - 172: Look at This Kid From the East, He Now Wins as if Taking Something From a Bag

The team director and the entire coaching staff were undoubtedly taken aback when they heard Huang Chong’s bold and aggressive strategy, and they all exchanged looks of surprise.

But they didn’t dare to doubt his ability.

He had simply put on too many highlight-reel performances on the climbs of one-day races.

Looking back at his season, from his very first win to the present, nearly every victory had been secured on a climb.

So, without another word, the team director got on the radio and relayed Huang Chong’s idea to Zwiehoff and Buchman.

Of the two German riders, Buchman was undoubtedly the stronger climber. After all, he wore the Germany national champion’s jersey, and with more races under his belt, his form was getting better and better.

He and Zwiehoff exchanged a few quick words, after which Zwiehoff decisively moved to the front of the peloton and began to increase the pace up Kekes Peak.

The first 9.1 kilometers of the climb had an average gradient of only about 5%. Knowing his leader was there to cover him, Zwiehoff held nothing back, launching a relentless push on the climb at nearly 30 km/h.

Under his ferocious acceleration, the peloton immediately began to string out and fracture.

Riders from Intercontinental Teams and Professional Teams, including sprinters like Cavendish, Welsford, and Sagan, were immediately dropped and left far behind.

A large number of riders soon disappeared from view, swallowed by the lush, tree-lined road behind the main group.

Meanwhile, the breakaway group, which had a two-and-a-half-minute lead before the climb, saw their gap shrink at a visibly rapid rate. One by one, they were caught and swallowed up by Zwiehoff, just like a game of Snake.

Tucked in right behind his teammate, Huang Chong was still riding comfortably at this pace, well within his limits.

His entire riding form was exceptionally stable, a fact that was especially obvious from the aerial camera shot.

While all the other cyclists were starting to sway from side to side, occasionally having to get out of the saddle to keep up, he remained seated, maintaining a steady cadence as if he were on a leisurely stroll up the mountain.

This sent a shiver down the spines of his rivals in the peloton, the ones vying with him for the overall title.

As a Professional Cyclist, who didn’t know that the more stable a rider’s upper body and core were on a climb, the stronger they were and the more they had left in reserve?

After all, a stable riding form not only preserves aerodynamic efficiency but also prevents power from being wasted through the rocking motion of the body and the bike.

Why is Pogačar so strong?

It’s because even on steep gradients of over ten percent, his riding form remains as stable as someone pedaling on flat ground. He maximizes his power output with every single pedal stroke.

And after Zwiehoff had pulled at the front for about three kilometers up the climb, the breakaway riders, who had been out for over 170 kilometers, were all caught.

"Buchman, take over for me. I need to catch my breath."

Zwiehoff had pushed hard at the front on Kekes Peak for nearly five kilometers, whittling the original hundred-man peloton down to just twenty riders before he finally called on Buchman.

Buchman, of course, had no objections. He nodded, immediately took over from his teammate at the front, and increased the pace again, instantly dropping nearly all the non-GC contenders.

In May, Kekes Peak was a sea of emerald green, the scenery exceptionally beautiful.

But on the road winding through the green landscape, as the cyclists gave their all to conquer the mountain and fulfill their respective roles, local fans from Hungary were also tucked into the dense forests, watching the show put on by Huang Chong and the others.

The Giro d’Italia might have captured the mainstream media’s attention throughout May, drawing the eyes of most cycling fans around the world, but the Hungarian fans here on Kekes Peak were witnessing, live and in person, riders from World Tour Teams showcasing their phenomenal power on the climb.

Buchman was also well aware of Huang Chong’s terrifying climbing ability. During the final stage of the UAE Tour, it was he who had been tasked with breaking away and then giving Huang Chong one last lead-out on the steep slope near the summit.

Therefore, he knew that even if he buried himself now, pulling relentlessly on this 5% gradient, Huang Chong, right on his wheel, would still have more than enough power for a solo attack on the final three kilometers of steep climbing.

The summit finish on Kekes Peak was getting closer and closer.

Under Buchman’s pace-setting, the lead group of twenty riders, aside from the UAE Cyclists, contained only a few other World Tour Cyclists and the climbing leaders from Professional Teams on par with the World Tour level—teams like Lotto and Tudor—who could still hang on.

As for the slightly weaker Professional Teams and the Intercontinental Teams, not a single one of their riders remained.

This result was a testament to the fact that the World Tour Teams had indeed gathered the world’s top 500 cyclists, concentrating nearly all the talent in one place.

And this was just the Bora Team’s third-string climbers; their ability to whittle down the field in the high mountains was already this fearsome.

One could only imagine the intensity of the Tour de France, where the top squads give their all and every stage is fought like a one-day classic. It was hard to fathom just how formidable those riders were, and how vast the gap was between them and an ordinary Professional Cyclist.

"About 500 meters until the 3-kilometer-to-go mark, Huang! Buchman will keep pulling for you through this next section of the climb. Get ready!"