Chapter 323 174: Changing Past-Life History, Starting to Carry Big Brother from the Last 1km

On June 2nd, the first day of racing at the Tour de Dauphine officially kicked off.

The stage was a 172.5 km circuit race held in the French city of Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioul.

The start and finish lines were located very close to each other.

The riders would depart from the start, complete one large loop around the entire city of Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioul, return to the starting area, and then ride two smaller finishing circuits before a final flat sprint to the finish line.

The main difficulty of the stage was concentrated in the mountain climbs during the first 111.5 km of the large loop.

The final 60-odd kilometers consisted of two smaller circuits. This section of the route was relatively flat, with only one short 600-meter climb at an average gradient of just 6.4%.

Furthermore, this short climb wasn't located at the finish. Judging by the organizers' design, it was clear that the first stage of the Dauphine was essentially a gift, tailor-made for the only two top sprinters in the race.

These were Mads Pedersen of the Trek Team and Sam Bennett of the Decathlon Team.

As for the Bora Team, although they had brought a big, powerful rider to lead on the flats and descents, he wasn't a true sprinter.

Therefore, Huang Chong's task for the first stage was simply to sit in the peloton, conserve energy, and find his racing legs.

The race began at 12:50 PM, but the temperature was only 12°C.

To make matters worse, a thick fog had descended upon Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioul, and visibility was extremely low.

Riding in such weather, Huang Chong felt as if he were cycling through a painting by the French Impressionist master, Monet.

He had already raced in several European countries this year—Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Germany, and others—and found the natural scenery to be largely similar.

But France was, without a doubt, the one that felt the most special to him.

If he had to describe it, it was that while every country had vast fields of crops integrated with natural landscapes, the roadsides in France had a distinctly manicured feel to them.

The way the French shaped their environment—the low walls along the roads, the small gardens in front of houses—was clearly more refined than in other European countries, looking exactly like scenes from an oil painting.

However, getting distracted while racing in such conditions—shrouded in thick fog, with high humidity, narrow roads, and damp pavement—was a recipe for disaster.

So, Huang Chong only briefly took in the scenery of Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioul before turning his full attention to the race.

The overall pace of today's race was very fast.

Over the four-hour ride, the average speed was around 43 km/h.

This was an incredibly high pace, considering the numerous mountain climbs and the narrowness of most of the roads.

This race truly lived up to its reputation as a premier one-week World Tour event. With nearly every top climber participating, the level of difficulty was clearly in a different league compared to smaller races.

The two riders who had broken away at the start were only caught by the peloton with about 16 km remaining to the finish line.

Since the stage was designed for sprinters like Pedersen and Bennett, the task of controlling the peloton naturally fell to their respective teams, Trek and Decathlon.

Meanwhile, the teams of the GC contenders—like Bora, Quick Step, Ineos, and the Visma Team—simply kept their lead-out trains together, tucked safely into the front-mid section of the strung-out peloton.

After all, their team leaders couldn't beat the pure sprinters in a bunch finish, so there was no point in sending their domestiques to control the pace. That would just be a waste of energy, doing the work for other teams.

The race proceeded smoothly until the breakaway was caught. Then, with only about 13 km to go, as the peloton hit the final 600-meter climb, Politt of the UAE Team launched an attack.

However, the Bora Team immediately sent Denz to cover the move, while the Tudor Team also sent a rider to stick right on Politt's wheel.

The trio's breakaway lasted for a mere two kilometers before they were reeled in by the peloton.

Of course, once past that climb, the race entered the final 10 kilometers.

The peloton immediately began to organize by team, with each squad forming up its train and frantically ramping up the speed.

As they cruised on the flat, Huang Chong, riding in the middle of the pack, glanced at his system's cycle computer and saw that the riders at the front were hitting 64 km/h.

On the descents, the speed even rocketed up to 99 km/h at one point.

'These maniacs. The race is almost over and they're still pulling this crap. Why waste the energy? It's not like anyone can open a gap on each other anyway. This just increases the risk of a crash—'

Huang Chong grumbled to himself.

He was actually long accustomed to World Tour cyclists ramping up the pace in the final 10 kilometers.

So, complaints aside, he heightened his focus during the final stage to avoid getting caught up in any crashes.

But he had no intention of attacking on today's stage.

Aldag, in the team car, had never instructed him to attack either.

His primary mission at the Tour de Dauphine was to protect Roglič, not to win stages for himself.

In the final sprint of the first stage, Pedersen of the Trek Team shot out of a corner in the last two hundred meters, seizing an extremely advantageous lead.

He launched a long-range anaerobic sprint, easily crushing the competition to win the first stage. With the victory, he claimed both the general classification Yellow Jersey and the Dash King Green Jersey.

As for Huang Chong and Roglič, to avoid any crashes, they deliberately eased off the pace in the final 200 meters and drifted to the back of the group, ultimately crossing the line in 70th and 71st place, respectively.

Of course, on a flat sprint stage, all riders are given the same finishing time, with the exception of those who crashed and abandoned the race.