Chapter 496 It's Great to Have a Godfather for a Backer

Huang Chong, on the other hand, never forgot to thank his domestiques after each race.

A top team leader without any airs was definitely a positive for the team’s long-term development.

It was safe to say that Huang Chong had not only won his teammates’ respect through his sheer talent, but his charisma also earned their deep admiration.

For a rider who had just burst onto the scene to be so mature, composed, carefree, and kind in his rookie season—he already possessed all the qualities of a future cycling legend.

Amid their laughter and cheerful conversation, the team bus soon arrived at the officially designated hotel.

For a World Tour Team, the behind-the-scenes staff were definitely the ones who worked the hardest.

While the riders could catch a break, the staff—from the PR and business teams to the mechanicians—were basically working around the clock.

The moment they got off the bus, they had to start various handovers, including arranging the team’s base of operations.

However, compared to the race officials in Europe, many of whom ran slapdash operations, the organizers of the Tour of Guangxi were truly excellent.

Anything the official organizers could handle—such as planning the team’s area, the riders’ accommodations and meals, the press conference venue, and offline event locations—had been planned and arranged in advance.

The Red Bull Bora Team’s business team just needed to do a walkthrough on-site to ensure none of the team sponsors’ logos were missing.

So, everything proceeded in an orderly manner. After Huang Chong and the others checked in smoothly, they even had plenty of time to head to the hotel’s fitness area for their daily training.

After their training session ended, the entire team was taken by race officials to attend the first day’s welcome dinner.

The main reason was that Huang Chong needed to meet with the race directors and other officials. After all, the General Administration attached great importance to his return to China to compete, and many high-ranking leaders had come, all wanting to meet him.

As for his coaching staff and teammates, since they had all come together, they naturally had to be invited as well.

After all, when it came to major events like this, the Chinese always favored a grand, celebratory atmosphere. It would be impossible to focus only on Huang Chong while neglecting his team members.

After the first day’s welcome banquet, Huang Chong’s schedule was packed with an offline fan meet-and-greet, a press conference, and team training.

Just as he was about to get busy, on the 12th, the final autumn classic of the season, the Tour of Lombardy, was also being held.

As a rider, Huang Chong naturally had to watch the live broadcast of the race with his team in the hotel conference room.

Meanwhile, cycling fans all across China, even knowing that Huang Chong had already returned to the country, wouldn’t miss such an exciting race.

But without Huang Chong participating, the Tour of Lombardy was certainly a bit less suspenseful.

Pogačar, as expected, crushed everyone and secured the win with an early solo break.

And Evenepoel smoothly took second place.

As for the Red Bull Bora Team, which had sent out its core leader and all its Core Deputy Commanders in full force, Roglič ultimately only managed to finish fifth in the general classification.

He had rested too much this year and also suffered too many injuries, which ultimately affected his race condition.

Still, it wasn’t a bad result by any means.

And with the Tour of Lombardy over, the second and third-string lineups of the major World Tour Teams began to flock to China.

The Tour of Guangxi is a World Tour event. Aside from Alpecin and the FDJ Team, who were absent this year, all other World Tour Teams would be participating.

The spots vacated by these two teams were filled by Professional Teams: Lotto and Israel-Premier Tech.

In addition to these 18 teams, the China National Team would still be invited to participate in the main race.

Huang Chong was very familiar with several of the seven riders sent by the National Team this year, such as Lü Xianjing, Sun Changsheng, and his former teammate Brother Xiaoma.

And just as all the World Tour Teams were arriving in Guangxi one after another, Huang Chong had no idea that his relatives and friends were also on their way.

For instance, his two younger cousins who were both attending university in Xiamen, his best friend Dewey, and others were on a plane to Guangxi.

Huang Xiaocong and Huang Lingshan hadn’t had the chance to go to Europe to watch Huang Chong race live, but as university students, they had a relative amount of freedom.

Their big brother was finally back in the country for a race; there was no way they would miss it.

However, among the people who came with Huang Xiaocong to watch the race were his university roommates.

Thanks to his influence, this group of top students from his dorm had now basically all fallen down the road cycling rabbit hole.

It started as a casual interest, but after personally witnessing Huang Chong win gold at both the Paris Olympics and the World Championships, they had long since become his die-hard fans.

Such is the pure devotion of STEM guys.

They even founded a cycling club at their school and established the Xiamen University campus cycling team.

In short, because of Huang Chong, many schools across the country, both high schools and universities, had seen a surge in new cycling clubs.

He had already indirectly influenced and inspired many young people to take up cycling.

“Brother Cong, our benefactor! We had a deal! We’re skipping class with you to come to Guangxi for the race, so you have to help us brothers get some autographs from your big bro.”

“Exactly! You know my girlfriend’s personality—she’s a genuine Sichuan spicy girl. She knows you’re Yellow God’s cousin, and since you’re my roommate, she’s already given me my orders: I have to get her an autographed photo of your big brother. If I can’t get it, I’ll definitely have to kneel on a durian when I get back. You know the methods of a Sichuan-Chongqing T-Rex, they’re too brutal! You have to help me out, bro!”

Huang Xiaocong had a rather honest and upstanding personality, but he couldn’t help but want to laugh hearing his roommates say all this.

‘These guys are completely twisting the truth.

All for my big brother’s autograph, they’re turning black into white.’

In reality, he hadn’t asked anyone to come with him to Guangxi to watch the race.

On the contrary, when he mentioned he was going to skip class to go to Guangxi, his roommates had all shamelessly begged to tag along.

But he could understand how his roommates felt.

‘With an inside connection like me, getting Big Brother’s autograph really isn’t that hard.

Once I get to Guangxi and contact Big Brother privately, Huang Chong will definitely agree.’

As for Huang Lingshan, she had, of course, also shamelessly insisted on coming with him.

After starting university, this terrible cousin of his hadn’t shed any of her bad habits of spending money extravagantly.

In fact, without her parents’ supervision, she had become even more unrestrained.

Basically, as soon as the living allowance from their family hit her account, she would load her meal money onto her student card and then spend the rest on either clothes and cosmetics or in-game skins, leaving her with no extra money for a plane ticket to Guangxi.

A helpless Huang Xiaocong couldn’t resist Huang Lingshan’s pleading and arm-shaking, so in the end, he had to bite the bullet and use his own scholarship money to buy her ticket.

After they arrived in Guangxi that evening and checked into a local hotel, Huang Xiaocong contacted Huang Chong right away.

The result went without saying. Huang Chong, who hadn’t seen his younger cousins in a year and missed them dearly, naturally left his hotel to meet them privately.

The emotions of a long-awaited family reunion need no explanation.

Due to his shy nature, Huang Xiaocong just grinned foolishly at his big brother, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

Huang Lingshan was different. She immediately threw herself into Huang Chong’s arms, crying “Big Brother, Big Brother!” over and over.

As for Huang Xiaocong’s roommates, seeing Huang Chong in person, they were all undoubtedly thrilled.

This was an Olympic champion, a World Championships champion, a Grand Tour champion, a champion of all sorts of World Tour races—

And to top it off, Huang Chong then treated them all to a meal at a local restaurant, a very distinctive Guangxi-style barbecue.

During the late-night meal, when Huang Chong learned that his cousin and friends had founded a cycling club at Xiamen University—one that was now not only large in scale but also had a semi-professional campus team, with his cousin’s entire dorm as core members—he immediately pulled some strings for them.

He invited them to join his team’s group training ride the next day.

This made the group of top students from Xiamen University howl with excitement.

‘Damn, it’s good to have a benefactor with connections!’

This was a chance to train with one of the world’s top superstar riders and a top World Tour Team!

‘If we film the training session, edit it into a short video, and upload it to social media, won’t cycling fans across the country cry with envy?’