Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

After cresting the climb, he quickly dropped back to the team car to pick up the last round of supplies, then ferried them up to the lead rider and his lieutenants.

Having to wait for Welsford, he had fallen about a minute behind the main group up front, completely losing sight of them.

It was a good thing he couldn’t see what was happening in the final 1000 meters. Otherwise, if he’d had to watch Del Toro of the UAE Team—a rider three years his junior—launch an attack and ride solo to a stage victory, he would have been angry enough to spit blood.

Of course, when he followed his lead rider, Welsford, across the finish line 59 seconds behind the lead group and saw that Del Toro was now number one in the general classification, he still felt a pang of frustration.

’Rookies on other teams get every opportunity to show what they can do, but I don’t. What kind of bullshit is that?’

But his anger was pointless. The Bora Team’s strategy had been clear from the start: this Tour of South Australia was all about winning the sprinter’s blue jersey.

So, even when the team leader saw that Huang Chong was in shockingly good form after the first two days, he couldn’t just elevate his tactical status on the fly.

Especially since the next two stages, the third and fourth, were long descents and pure flats—perfectly suited for Welsford.

The entire team had to make sacrifices for him, to say nothing of the "water boy," Huang Chong.

But what the entire coaching staff hadn’t expected was that Huang Chong’s form remained consistent while riding in the intense heat. After four grueling, hot stages—days that forced many other riders to withdraw—he had single-handedly and effortlessly completed all of the team’s supply runs.

At the same time, in Stages 3 and 4, he again helped the lead rider, Sam Welsford, secure victories in both stages, completely locking down the title of this Tour of South Australia’s top sprinter: the blue jersey.

With the team’s main objective accomplished two stages ahead of schedule, everyone was naturally thrilled.

Only the team leader was left conflicted. After the race, he watched Huang Chong lying on a massage table, getting treatment from the team therapist while simultaneously clutching a tablet and studying French vocabulary.

’Because this "water boy" from China,’ he thought, ’is just too damn strange!’

’He’s a rookie who just joined a World Tour Team. After four straight days of high-intensity racing, how is it that this guy’s form is only getting better?’

’It just defied all logic!’

Finally, after wrestling with his thoughts, he called the sports director at the German team headquarters and got straight to the point.

"Rolf, we delivered. We’ve successfully secured the sprinter’s blue jersey at the Tour of South Australia.

But there’s something else I have to tell you.

That young rider you signed from China last year... after four days of racing, his form is nothing short of incredible.

I’ve watched him on the climbs. Even on the 10% gradients at Fox Creek, he looked completely comfortable.

I think the final two mountain stages are perfect for him.

Should we consider adjusting our tactics and let him go for a result in the climbing stages?

He’s already lost nearly a minute in the GC from protecting Welsford, but I think if we make him our lead climber, he could at least make a run at a stage win in these last two days.

Even if we just upgrade him to a support role for the climbs, he could pace or lead out our other two climbers, Zwiehoff and Adrià—"