Chapter 428 206: Rich Tactical Applications: The 'Raise a Wolf to Counter the Enemy' Plan (3)

"Especially since your strength seems unstoppable—"

"Road cycling is always brutal, especially in a Grand Tour with so many competitors.

But not every rider can be like you, fighting with everything they have just for the overall victory, right?

So besides the winner, the second and third podium spots, every single position in the GC top ten, and the final owner of each of the four classification jerseys—all of these are critically important."

"For a professional team, losing the overall title doesn't mean we walk away with nothing.

It's true that O'Connor can massively shrink his gap to you by the end of this stage, but he'll also be putting time into the leaders of the other teams.

I'm confident that with your strength, once you hit a sufficiently steep climb, he is absolutely no match for you—"

"But it's different for the other teams. If they let O'Connor take such a huge advantage, they won't even be able to hold on to second place in the overall standings!

So we need to let a major threat build a big enough lead. Then, we have to be patient and quietly wait for the other teams to crack first, to send their own riders to the front of the peloton and join the chase for O'Connor.

If they continue to sit tight, then all of those teams will have to accept losing out on the battle for the top two spots in the GC. For professional teams, that result is unacceptable!"

Aldag said a lot over the radio.

In fact, the message was so long and the radio signal so unstable that he had to transmit it to Huang Chong in pieces.

But after hearing it all, Huang Chong felt much better. It was as if everything had suddenly clicked into place.

As a rider, he naturally prized personal victory above all else.

Every Professional Cyclist was the same in that regard.

But he had to admit that he couldn't win the title without the help of his teammates.

'And how should his teammates, who aren't as strong as him, best conserve and allocate their energy?

That's undoubtedly a matter for Aldag and the coaching staff to consider.

Everyone's energy is finite. To put it bluntly, every rider has a set total power output for a Grand Tour.

How can they best distribute that output over 21 stages to provide the maximum support for their leader?

That can only be managed by a team director, who sees the big picture.'

Aldag's speech made Huang Chong realize that there was a good reason why even riders as strong as Pogačar and Vingegaard had to obediently follow their team directors' orders.

And so, with a new understanding of the multifaceted nature of race tactics, Huang Chong no longer needed to get worked up over nothing.

He was confident that even if they rode all the way to the foot of the final Third Category Climb and the other teams still refused to help chase, Aldag would definitely order his support riders to control the time gap to O'Connor on the ascent, preventing him from losing the Red Jersey.

Huang Chong had absolute confidence in his own abilities. He had beaten O'Connor before on the World Tour.

At the UAE Tour early in the season, for instance, he had dropped him with the form he had then.

If he wanted to win, he could really win it back in a matter of minutes.

So, as far as he was concerned, as long as he didn't lose the Red Jersey, he didn't care if O'Connor closed the gap to a single second by the end of the stage.

However, if the peloton really did finish the stage with a huge deficit of 4 minutes and 57 seconds to O'Connor, then riders like Almeida of UAE Team and Mas of Movistar Team would be leapfrogged by O'Connor in the standings, and by a considerable margin at that.

So, would they be able to accept that result?

...