Chapter 457 - 217: Even Among Geniuses, There Is a Gap

"Insane! Huang Chong’s legs are just insane!!"

"Seated climbing on a steep slope, pulling half a minute on everyone else per kilometer. Besides Poga?ar and the Shark Man, I really can’t think of anyone who can keep up with him on a climb right now—"

"And Red Bull Bora was explosive on that final climb. The moment their train started pulling, O’Connor and the others couldn’t even keep up, without Huang Chong even needing to attack. They totally deserve the win!!!"

"Do you even need to watch Huang Chong’s races anymore? I just wake up from a nap, and what do you know, another victory?"

"For Huang Chong to reach this level of strength in his first year on the World Tour, and lead his team to dominate a Grand Tour... It’s really hard to say if UAE and Visma Team will be able to maintain their dominance from the past two years."

"Let’s not talk about UAE for now. After all, Huang Chong lost to Poga?ar at both the Tour de France and Liège-Bastogne-Liège this year. But Visma Team has actually already been suppressed by Red Bull Bora!"

"Exactly! Not only did Huang Chong win a bunch of Spring Classics this season, but in the three Grand Tours, Red Bull Bora finished second in both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. You could say Visma came away with nothing—"

"Now the Vuelta a Espa?a is about to end. Huang Chong is a full eleven and a half minutes ahead of O’Connor in second place, which has completely killed any suspense in the race. In contrast, Visma’s general classification leader, Kuss, is only 11th in the overall standings after this stage. How can they even compare to Red Bull Bora?"

"Congratulations to Huang Chong for his five epic stage wins at the Vuelta a Espa?a!!!"

"Hoping he can achieve another great result in tomorrow’s Queen Stage and directly tie Poga?ar’s number of stage wins from the Giro d’Italia!!!"

...

After Stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espa?a ended, the fans in China were undoubtedly the most excited.

To see their home rider completely dominate a Grand Tour, crushing everyone and ruling the race with such terrifying and overwhelming strength, was truly a blood-pumping experience.

This is how a champion rider should be: leaving everyone in the dust from start to finish, dropping them all.

For neutral fans, it might be more exciting if the general classification contenders were neck and neck, with the time gaps remaining tight and the race’s suspense lasting until the final stage—

But how many neutral fans could there be within China?

After all, among a massive population of 1.4 billion, Huang Chong was currently the only top rider from their country making waves on the World Tour circuit. Of course they would unconditionally support their own rider. Who needs suspense!

If he was going to win, they naturally wanted to see Huang Chong be like Poga?ar, just steamrolling everyone to reach the pinnacle of the road cycling world!

"Congratulations to Huang Chong, and congratulations to the Red Bull Bora Team, for locking up the overall victory of this year’s Vuelta a Espa?a ahead of schedule!

After today’s race, I don’t think anyone from the other GC teams will be fantasizing about the Red Jersey of the Vuelta a Espa?a anymore.

Honestly, seeing another rider completely crush all his opponents in a Grand Tour with such superior strength gives me a surreal feeling about the current trend in professional road cycling.

For a hundred years, this has clearly been a team sport, where all the teams’ Core Commander riders only needed to specialize in their own areas of expertise—

But ever since Tadej burst onto the scene, it seems he has completely changed the entire way of riding.

He broke away from the traditional style of riding, enabling himself to adapt to any terrain, and he also possesses a terrifyingly high win rate.

This has clearly become the future direction for modern Road Cyclists.

I originally thought that Remco from the Quick Step Team would become Tadej’s biggest rival in the coming years, but after watching this year’s races, I can only say that Huang Chong’s overall ability is clearly closer to Tadej’s than Remco’s is.

Looking at all of Huang Chong’s victories this year, his riding style has almost no weaknesses.

Climbing, sprinting, descending, endurance cruising, time trial ability, including his Car Control Techniques and mental fortitude, are all at a top-tier level.

He’s a young man of only 24, still eligible to wear the White Jersey, yet he performs like a seasoned veteran. It’s as if he’s already won every championship, grown accustomed to every possible change on the race course, and can always maintain extreme focus, with every situation perfectly under control. Even after a rare defeat, you don’t see much emotional fluctuation from him. Instead, he quickly bounces back in the very next race with an even better performance—

Jimmy, I’d really like to know, if you were the leader of any team on the Tour of Spain right now and had to face a rider like that, what would that feel like?"

On European Sports, Steve, who was always sharp-tongued and quite harsh in his assessment of riders’ performances, couldn’t help but start feeling some sympathy for the other cyclists. This was after he saw Huang Chong tear all his rivals to shreds again on the final climb of Stage 19, completely extinguishing any suspense for the overall championship.

There was no other reason. It was just that kind of race—a top-tier Grand Tour where your rival continuously extends his lead, leaving you without a single chance for a comeback from start to finish.

What kind of mental preparation would it take to convince yourself to keep riding?

Jimmy was silent for a long time. He seriously mulled over his partner’s question before finally letting out a long sigh, shaking his head with a wry smile.

"Besides ’despair,’ I really can’t find any other word to describe that feeling of defeat!

Most Professional Cyclists begin their specialized training from a young age. Whether it’s in stormy weather, the unbearable heat of high summer, or the bone-chilling cold of deep winter, they have undoubtedly endured immense hardship for the chance to join and ride for a World Tour Team.