Chapter 373 - 188: When I Chase the Sun, I Find I’ll Truly Get Burned (Part 2)

"Our tactics need to change, Director.

At the very least, when we’re riding in the peloton, we shouldn’t be near the back. It greatly increases the risk of crashing.

You need to have someone lead me to the front of the main group!"

Two massive crashes had occurred during Stage 13, but Huang Chong managed to luckily avoid both thanks to his quick reflexes. Afterward, he felt he had to voice his opinion to Aldag.

He was genuinely dissatisfied with the sporting director’s understanding of formation.

This wasn’t the first time their team had suffered greatly from riding at the back of the peloton.

At the Liège Race, for instance, all of Bora Team’s domestiques were too far back, which resulted in everyone getting blocked by a crash at the rear of the group.

And during Stage 9 of the Tour de France, all the domestiques were at the back of the group again, which led to Vlasov getting caught up in a crash.

Stage 12 was even more absurd.

If Roglič hadn’t been positioned so far back, Lutsenko, who crashed in the middle of the peloton, wouldn’t have taken him down in the incident—

Admittedly, riding at the back of the peloton saves a rider more energy, but it’s also correspondingly more dangerous.

Is it really worth forcing your leader to risk crashing just to conserve a little power? Is that tactical choice truly justifiable?

At least in Huang Chong’s eyes, it was undoubtedly a boneheaded plan.

In contrast, the leaders of Vismar, Quick Step, Ineos, and UAE Team were almost always at the front of the peloton, which greatly reduced their risk of crashing.

When Aldag heard Huang Chong express his dissatisfaction after the race, he had nothing to say in response.

Huang Chong might just be a rookie on a neo-pro contract, but his current professional skill and tactical importance had already made him the future and hope of the entire team.

Whether he could keep his own secure position would likely depend on staying on Huang Chong’s good side after the Tour de France. So, he immediately took Huang Chong’s advice and completely changed his tactical approach for Stage 14.

But in truth, Aldag’s previous tactical arrangements were born of necessity.

Roglič’s age was, after all, a factor. On top of that, his season had been plagued by injuries, and aside from Paris-Nice, he had crashed in the subsequent Basque Country race, the Dauphiné, and the Tour de France.

Therefore, in terms of both physical condition and competitive form, Roglič had consistently been unable to reach his personal peak level.

Under these circumstances, Aldag could only have the team escort their leader and "lie low" at the back of the peloton to conserve as much energy as possible.

But Huang Chong was truly young. Coupled with his top-tier cardiopulmonary abilities and incredible recovery between efforts, he certainly didn’t need the small amount of power and energy saved by hiding at the back of the peloton.

Now that he felt the danger of riding at the rear, it was perfectly understandable for him to proactively request a change in tactics.

「July 13, Tour de France Stage 14.」

The riders would travel from Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet, covering a total distance of 151.9 km.

Once again, there was only one intermediate sprint point, located at the 70 km mark of the stage.

The stage’s total distance might not seem long.

But riding through the Pyrenees Mountains, its difficulty was enough to make even a World Tour Cyclist’s heart pound and legs turn to jelly.

Because its total elevation gain was a staggering 4,050 meters.

The terrain of this stage was simple and brutal.

It was nothing but climbing, and more climbing.

Furthermore, this was the first HC Level summit finish stage of the Tour de France so far.

There were only three officially categorized climbs in the entire stage.

Of these, the first and the last were both HC Level climbs.

Only the middle climb was a slightly less difficult Category 2 climb.

The summit of the first climb, located at the 90 km mark, was none other than the famous Col du Tourmalet climb, a legendary ascent in the Tour de France.

It was 18.9 km long, with an average gradient of 7.4% and a maximum gradient of 9.8% in the final kilometer.

The summit of the second climb was at the 123.5 km mark: the Hourquette d’Ancizan climb.

It was 8.3 km long with an average gradient of 5% and a maximum gradient of 7.5%.

The average gradient of the final 2.8 km reached 6.7%.

As for the final HC Level summit finish, it was, of course, the Pla d’Adet climb.

It was 10.6 km long, with an average gradient of 8% and a maximum gradient reaching 12%.

It was worth noting that the difficulty of this HC Level climb was mostly concentrated in the first 7 km.

Closer to the summit, the gradient actually eased up and even included a few hundred meters of gentle descent.

After the race began, a large number of breakaway riders once again launched the first attacks.

Because the first 70 km of today’s stage were a gradual incline, the sprinters naturally joined the breakaway to contest the only intermediate sprint points available before the climbing began.

After the intermediate sprint point, UAE Team sent their flat-terrain domestique, Politt, directly to the front to begin driving the pace toward the Tourmalet.

Huang Chong’s Red Bull Bora Team currently had no ability to control the pace of the race.

Sindel needed to be a lead-out for Huang Chong, and the rest were all flat-terrain domestiques. Therefore, even though their leader wore the Yellow Jersey, they didn’t need to take part in leading the main group.

Of course, UAE Team wouldn’t let Bora lead anyway, because this was a stage that truly belonged to their leader.

Back in the 2024 season, Politt was still a Bora Team rider, seeing as he’s German.

But after transferring to UAE Team, he had clearly improved his climbing ability from being just a pure flat-terrain domestique, incredibly managing to set the pace all by himself, grinning from ear to ear, for the entire 20-kilometer-long Tourmalet climb.