Chapter 359 - 184: The Battle for the Yellow Jersey, the First Week’s Competition Ends

His biggest rivals in the time trial were still primarily Vingegaard and Pogačar, not even the number one ITT rider, Evenepoel.

After all, if he wanted to hold onto the Yellow Jersey, Vingegaard and Pogačar were the two with the smallest time gaps to him.

But Evenepoel, who started fourth from last, was unbelievably fast on the flats.

With every time check he passed, he gained a massive amount of time on Roglič.

Conversely, Vingegaard, who had utterly destroyed Pogačar in last year’s ITT stage, was neck and neck with Roglič on time.

Aldag, following in the team car behind Huang Chong, kept a close eye on the data for Pogačar—who had started one spot ahead—and promptly reported the times:

"Huang, Remco is the fastest in terms of real-time speed right now.

After the first time check, Tadej is two seconds behind him.

Your speed right now is very close to Tadej’s. Keep it up!!"

In a time trial stage, the team’s role was basically to scream encouragement over the radio.

Because there were no tactics to speak of in this stage.

You either had it or you didn’t.

But Huang Chong knew in his heart that at his current level, he still couldn’t out-ride Evenepoel.

Especially from the start of the stage to the first time check, it was all flat roads with hardly any corners.

This wasn’t just a matter of power; his drivetrain gearing setup wasn’t as aggressive as Evenepoel’s either.

Of the 174 riders competing in the ITT, only Evenepoel was using a 62-tooth chainring.

Meanwhile, he, Pogačar, Vingegaard, and the others only dared to use a 60-tooth one.

To achieve extreme weight savings, TT bikes use a single, oversized chainring. The more teeth it has, the harder it is to pedal.

To dare use a 62-tooth chainring, especially on a climb, meant Evenepoel undoubtedly had absolute confidence in his own strength.

Fortunately, Huang Chong’s goal for this stage wasn’t to win it.

His sole objective was simply to not let Pogačar overtake him in the overall standings.

Pogačar wasn’t the world’s best at flat time trials, even though his threshold riding ability and FTP Power were certainly higher than both Huang Chong’s and Eve’s.

But over a 25.3 km course that took less than half an hour, he couldn’t really leverage that advantage.

Conversely, after special training with a top-tier coach brought in by the team’s majority shareholder, the Red Bull Group, Huang Chong’s aerodynamic posture and understanding of ITT riding had been honed to perfection.

If he rode his heart out, it would be basically impossible for Pogačar to create a gap.

In the end, when Huang Chong reached the first time check, his time was almost identical to Pogačar’s, both of them about two seconds behind Evenepoel.

Then, after a climb with a 6.5% gradient, he had lost 3 seconds to Pogačar by the time he reached the second time check.

When it came to climbing ability, he was, after all, no match for that freakish Mars People.

Fortunately, today’s ITT stage only had that one climb. At the subsequent third time check, and at the final finish line, Huang Chong didn’t lose any more time to Pogačar.

In the end, after Stage 7 concluded, Evenepoel unsurprisingly took the victory in a stage that played to his strengths.

He was 2 seconds ahead of Huang Chong at the first time check, 12 seconds ahead at the second, and 6 seconds ahead at the third.

That is to say, in the final flat section to the finish, with its increased number of corners, plus the anaerobic sprint before the line—areas where Huang Chong was stronger—he managed to win back a little time during the stage.

But even so, after the ITT stage, his lead in the overall standings over Evenepoel was cut by a full 15 seconds.

As for Pogačar, he also closed the gap to Huang Chong by 3 seconds in this stage, and now only 5 seconds separated the two!

But after this stage, Vingegaard lost 37 seconds to Eve, while Roglič lost another 34 seconds to Evenepoel.

And after Stage 7 ended, the top five positions on the general classification leaderboard also saw some slight changes.

The biggest losers were undoubtedly Ayuso, C. Rodríguez, Landa, and Ciccone, who had been ranked fifth, seventh, eighth, and tenth in the GC, respectively.

Because their time trial abilities weren’t top-tier, they lost over one and two minutes respectively, and while they managed to stay in the upper ranks of the GC, the top five GC Cyclists had now completely pulled away from them in total time.

In the end, the new top ten in the general classification was as follows:

1. Huang Chong, 27:16:18

2. Pogačar, +0:05

3. Vingegaard, +0:42

4. Evenepoel, +0:47

5. Roglič, +1:48

6. Ayuso, +2:31

7. Almeida, +2:32

8. C. Rodríguez, +2:48

9. Landa, +4:22

10. Jorgenson, +4:50

...

The Bora Team naturally had no complaints about the reshuffled general classification standings.

Although Pogačar had closed the gap to Huang Chong by 3 seconds, there were no time bonuses for the top three in the ITT stage, so he still kept the Yellow Jersey.

And Roglič’s rank in the general classification had even climbed one spot from yesterday.

For the team, this could be considered a complete bonus.

On top of that, their third and fourth place finishes in today’s ITT stage earned the team 110 and 90 points, respectively, plus 2,800 and 1,500 euros in prize money, which was another reason to celebrate.

Overall, after Stage 7, if you had to name the most dissatisfied teams, it would probably be Vismar and the Trek Team.

Not only had Vingegaard lost a significant amount of time, but Ciccone had dropped out of the top ten in the GC entirely.

But that was the cruelty of an ITT race; there’s a reason it’s called "the race of truth."