Chapter 449: Securing Golden Chariot's First Victory in the Mountaintop Mist

Chapter 449: Chapter 214: Securing Golden Chariot’s First Victory in the Mountaintop Mist

The Quick Step Team, in particular, hadn’t sent any riders into the breakaway, so they were now firmly controlling the time gap between the peloton and the breakaway group.

So far, they had not only swallowed up all the riders dropped from the First Category Climb, but they were also only about two minutes behind the leading group.

As we all know, that’s not a significant time gap on a climb.

Furthermore, in the breakaway group, aside from Castrillo—this Vuelta a España’s most dazzling rookie—who would willingly work with Sivakov, the other five riders were all support men planted by their respective GC teams to aid their leaders’ future attacks—

Whether it was Vlasov, Amiel, Pash, or the others, they would never take a turn pulling on the final climb.

So, if Sivakov and Castrillo truly wanted to win from the breakaway, they had to drop those GC teams’ domestiques completely, and do it as early as possible before the HC Level climb began.

And for just the two of them, that would undoubtedly be difficult—”

Without a doubt, Steve, being European Sports’ top cycling commentator, had an outstanding understanding of road racing tactics, including the ability to analyze strategic shifts mid-race.

With his level of expertise, he could even coach some lower-tier teams.

In fact, the current race situation and what was about to unfold were pretty much spot on with his predictions.

After securing points at the two First Category Climbs, Vine positioned himself at the very front of the breakaway group and began a suicide pull for Sivakov.

He didn’t let his teammate take a single turn in the rotation all the way until they entered the final 18.9km of the HC Level climb.

Meanwhile, although the road was relatively flat before the HC Level climb, today’s stage was predominantly a gradual uphill.

So, with Vine giving his all and completely emptying the tank at the front, his pace served to wear down and thin out the breakaway riders behind him, as well as the relentlessly chasing peloton.

His one and only goal, as per team orders, was to carry Sivakov a few more kilometers for his subsequent attack on the climb before he completely blew up.

And as Vine finally burned himself out and pulled aside, the seven-man leading group, as expected, smoothly transitioned onto the final HC Level climb.

From here on out, however, Sivakov was on his own.

The good news was that after the First Category Climb, for nearly 40km until the foot of Quintana Negro Mountain, he had been drafting off his teammate the entire time. He was well-rested, so his condition was excellent.

So, Sivakov didn’t hesitate for a moment. He knew he had no other choice—the domestiques behind him would never take a turn—so he launched a powerful assault right at the start of the Quintana Negro climb.

Under the force of his superior climbing, Vine, who was already nearly spent, was naturally dropped in an instant.

This meant the breakaway group was down a man right as they started the ascent.

Then, after they had ridden 3km into the final climb, the gradient steepened to 7.4%.

And the average gradient for the next kilometer would be an even higher 8.0%.

Unsurprisingly, with two consecutive kilometers of such steep gradients, Sivakov immediately dropped the two FDJ Team domestiques, Pash and Stefan King, as well as the Decathlon domestique, Amiel.

This showed that his climbing ability was truly impressive.

If not for the presence of star riders like Pogačar, Almeida, and Adam Yates on his team, he could very well have been a team leader in some races.

At the same time, the most frightening thing was that when the peloton, which had been controlled by the Quick Step Team all day, followed them onto these two kilometers of steep slopes, they couldn’t close the gap to the now three-man breakaway group at all.

On the contrary, the gap, which had been holding steady at around two minutes, widened to three minutes after these two steep kilometers, and it looked like it would only continue to grow.

For Huang Chong, who was riding near the back of the group, this development was undoubtedly unacceptable.

‘If I want to win today’s stage, I absolutely can’t just sit behind the Quick Step Team for too long.’

The Quick Step Team’s domestiques had done incredible work, basically pulling for the entire race, with only a brief rotation from the EF Education Team’s domestiques.

But to be honest, their climbing abilities were indeed limited.

If they continued to control the pace, the gap from the peloton would only get bigger and bigger.

Fortunately, there was still a long way to the summit finish. After the 8% steep section, the average gradients for the next three kilometers were only 2.9%, 3.9%, and 4.8%, respectively.

On such a gentle slope, they weren’t losing any more time to Sivakov up ahead.

But after three consecutive kilometers of a slightly easier, gradual slope, the gradient immediately steepened again.

And over the next four kilometers, the gradient would progressively increase.

The gradients would be 7.5%, 8.0%, 8.4%, and in the final kilometer, the average gradient would reach a terrifying 11.1%.

And just as Huang Chong had expected, as soon as the climb hit a gradient of over 7%, the Quick Step Team’s domestiques couldn’t keep up with Sivakov’s climbing pace at all.