Chapter 370 - 187: I Must Hold the Fort on the Leaderboard by Myself

The time bonus for third place was six seconds less than for first place.

As a result, Pogačar, who had been only five seconds behind Huang Chong, fell even further back after Stage 11—a stage his team was determined to win. The gap widened to double digits, putting him 11 seconds behind.

...

"Huang, I can now say with one hundred percent certainty that you are, without a doubt, the best rookie I have seen in my entire life! The best rookie to join a World Tour Team in decades!!

Do you realize what this means? For a rookie to snatch two stage wins, in the exact same way, from Jonas and Tadej—the men who have dominated the Tour de France for the last four years—it’s a bona fide miracle! It’s a blessing from God on this entire team!!

I have to completely re-evaluate your future with this team!

And I must thank you, with the most sincere gratitude, for choosing my team.

Without you, our team’s results this season would be completely lackluster!

Your decision to join us is what has given our team—a team that embraced bold reforms and lofty ambitions this year—the true spirit of a top contender and a brilliant future ahead!!"

After Huang Chong returned to the team bus for a sweet embrace with Chen Junyi, the team’s CEO, Ralph Denke—completely oblivious that he was playing the third wheel—rushed over to hug Huang Chong, his face flushed with excitement. He then leaned in and whispered these "words from the heart" into his ear.

However, Chen Junyi had long ago warned Huang Chong to take any praise from a businessman with a grain of salt.

But while Huang Chong didn’t pay much mind to the flattery in Denke’s speech, he could still read between the lines and understand the implications beyond simple praise.

Of course, until a new contract was actually placed in front of him, there was nothing for Huang Chong to say.

He simply treated it as a tacit understanding between them.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with his boss, Huang Chong refocused on the matter at hand.

As he got on a stationary trainer to cool down, he asked Aldag, who had made his way back to the finish area:

"How’s Primož, Director? Was that crash in the final stretch serious?"

Hearing the question, Aldag let out a long sigh of relief and answered in a tone of someone who had just narrowly escaped disaster:

"Thankfully, it’s not too bad. You don’t need to worry."

"His tire just slipped in that last corner, causing him to fall to the side.

He had already slowed down for the corner before he went down, though, so he wasn’t seriously injured!"

As his teammate, Huang Chong was well aware that Roglič had long been plagued by back and shoulder injuries.

For example, he had suffered a fairly serious shoulder injury from a crash during the recent Tour de Dauphine.

And while those injuries had mostly healed by the start of the Tour de France and weren’t significantly impacting his performance, Huang Chong was genuinely afraid that his teammate had crashed hard again in that corner.

Roglič’s campaigns in the Tour de France over the past few years had all ended prematurely due to crashes; his luck was simply rotten.

So Huang Chong sincerely hoped that by joining the team, he could somehow help change his teammate’s fortune.

’But it seemed some things, like fate, were simply preordained.’

And so, just after he had fought hard to defend his Yellow Jersey, disaster struck. During the flat terrain of Stage 12, as the peloton rode from Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot with only about 12 kilometers to the finish—

On a tricky section of road with a median divider, an Astana cyclist, Alexey Lutsenko, was squeezed by the peloton. His wheel caught the divider, and he was thrown from the left lane of traffic directly into the right.

Roglič, riding at high speed within the peloton, had no time to react and his front wheel ran directly over Lutsenko’s fallen body.

The impact launched Roglič into a massive forward somersault through the air before his entire back slammed down hard onto the asphalt.

Huang Chong, wearing the Yellow Jersey and personally leading Roglič through the pack, was fully concentrated. At the precise moment Lutsenko fell, he managed to swerve and deftly avoid the crash.

But Roglič’s reflexes were clearly not as fast.

Plus, the timing of Lutsenko’s fall into the right lane seemed divinely orchestrated to happen directly in Roglič’s path.

It ultimately triggered what seemed to be an unavoidable, catastrophic crash.

And Roglič wasn’t the only one caught up in the crash caused by Lutsenko.

In fact, it triggered a massive pile-up on both sides of the road.

"Dammit, how’s Primož?

I was doing everything I could to protect him, choosing the safest line.

But that Astana cyclist... it was like he was a pawn of fate. The crash still happened!"

After frantically dodging the disaster, Huang Chong naturally stuck with the lead group and continued toward the finish line.

But his other teammates had all been riding behind Roglič and were now caught up or dropped by the incident.

With 12km to the finish, any crash fell outside the 3km protection rule.

Therefore, even if Roglič could get back on his bike and finish the stage with the help of his remaining teammates, he was certain to lose a huge amount of time in the general classification.

Aldag’s face was incredibly grim.

He had already stepped out of the team car to check on Roglič, but the situation looked anything but optimistic.