Chapter 397 196: Brother Lü and Coach Han, Frightened by Evenepoel (Part 2)

At this year's Paris Olympic Games, the national cycling team would compete in events that could be divided into four main categories and dozens of smaller disciplines.

Of these, track cycling and BMX freestyle were the two categories with the most sub-events.

As for road cycling and mountain biking, these two categories combined for just five sub-events.

Apart from the men's road race, which had two participants, the other four sub-events each had only a single participant.

It was a bit of a shame that Huang Chong hadn't secured a spot for the country in the men's road ITT last year.

The qualification spots for this event were obtained in a completely different way from the road race; they couldn't be earned just by competing in the Asian Championships.

But every cloud has a silver lining. Since he and Lü Xianjing didn't have to participate in the ITT, they could conserve more energy.

Besides, the top favorite for the championship, Evenepoel, was competing in both events anyway.

In addition, while Thomas Pidcock of the British Team wasn't participating in the road ITT either, that guy was also competing in two cycling events at the Olympics.

One was the mountain bike cross-country, and the other was the road race.

In fact, for Pidcock, although he was a professional Road Cyclist, the mountain bike cross-country race was a better fit for him, and his chances of winning were much higher in that event.

After all, he was the gold medal winner in mountain bike cross-country at the previous Tokyo Olympic Games.

After Huang Chong arrived at the indoor training facility, he wasn't really familiar with the athletes from track cycling, BMX, or mountain biking, so he just greeted everyone politely.

However, among the BMX riders, there were many young-looking girls who seemed to be about middle school age.

So when these younger girls asked for his autograph, he was happy to oblige them all.

In terms of fame, he was undoubtedly the biggest name among all the athletes present.

After all, the influence of a Tour de France runner-up was no joke.

Although professional cycling as a whole was a niche sport in the country, road cycling had at least seen a surge in participants in recent years, so its audience was certainly broader than that of the other three categories.

And as a cyclist, Huang Chong was currently the only one riding on the World Tour, so naturally, many of his domestic peers knew of him.

He was someone who had truly achieved great results on the World Tour. Even across disciplines, many coaches would use him as a positive example to motivate their own trainees.

"Huang Chong, your strength now... it's reached a level I can only dream of reaching in my lifetime."

"To think that just last year, we were competing in the same league, and now you're the runner-up of the Tour de France—"

"Sigh, if only I could participate in the Tour de France."

"I wouldn't even ask for any particular result. Just getting to qualify and experience the atmosphere of the Tour de France would be enough for me!"

After seeing Huang Chong, Lü Xianjing smiled and the two shared a hug.

They hadn't actually interacted much during their domestic races.

Because back then, one was on the Hengxiang Team, and the other was on the Huaxing Team.

But to say there was no connection between them would be completely wrong.

Because when Lü Xianjing was just starting out, it was Coach Li Fuyu of the Hengxiang Team who helped discover him.

So, if they were to go by seniority, Huang Chong would even have to call him "senior brother."

Furthermore, during last year's Tour of Qinghai Lake, Huang Chong was competing with the National Team. On a mountain stage, after all his teammates had been dropped, it was Lü Xianjing, who was wearing the blue jersey, and the Huaxing Team who let him draft. Only then was he able to defeat the black lead rider of the Bardiani Team and claim the final victory.

Huang Chong wasn't the type of person to forget favors or look down on others once he became successful.

So, being able to see Lü Xianjing in France and knowing they would be racing together filled him with a sense of warmth and familiarity.

He smiled and replied:

"Brother Lü, please don't say that. You're embarrassing me."

"Actually, after more than half a year on the World Tour, I've realized there's a significant gap in the difficulty of domestic leagues, including team training. All we can do is work to close that gap slowly."

"But I believe that with your strength, Brother Lü, if you're really willing to come race in Europe, you'd have a chance to join a professional team here."

"How about this? Later, I'll have my partner send you a copy of my training plan from the Red Bull Bora Team."

"After you get back home, you can use it as a reference, or you can share it with the other members of the National Team."

Hearing this, Lü Xianjing nodded in gratification and immediately smiled and thanked him.

Huang Chong's willingness to share his training plan might not actually be of much use to him.

After all, the difference in their strength was too great, and the training intensity they could handle was completely different.

But Huang Chong's good intentions made Lü Xianjing feel very heartened.

Humans are, in fact, difficult creatures to figure out.

After achieving extraordinary success, it's not easy for many people to remain as humble as they were before.

But Huang Chong was clearly no different than before. He still seemed just as easygoing, without any airs.

And after some brief pleasantries, they naturally threw themselves into training together for the next few days.

Besides the two of them, the participants in the road cycling events also included Tang Xin from the women's team.

Tang Xin even had to compete in two events by herself: the road race and the ITT.

However, when Huang Chong took Lü Xianjing and Tang Xin to train in advance and scout the race route in France, the other two could clearly feel that even though the three of them were just on a casual ride, Huang Chong's cycling ability was on a completely different level.