Chapter 475: Top-Tier ITT Performance, Crazy Overtakes to Finish the Race

For an ITT race, getting to know the course in advance was crucial.

A few days before the race began, Zurich also cleared the course for the cyclists during designated times to help them familiarize themselves with the road conditions.

Coach Han and his entire team were there to support Huang Chong’s training on his TT bike.

As it was pre-race training, Huang Chong didn’t go all out; he just needed to ride it a few more times to memorize every corner.

The urban road infrastructure in developed European countries was largely similar. After riding in the World Tour for almost a year, Huang Chong was quite familiar with it.

So, after riding the specific ITT course a few times, he stopped expending any more energy and began to focus on the race itself.

At this year’s World Championships, the Men’s Elite ITT was the opening event, while the road race was the finale.

In between, many other race categories were interspersed.

There were women’s, junior, and para-cycling categories, making it quite comprehensive.

However, there was no doubt that while the World Championships format accommodated a wide range of competitors, the only events that truly captured worldwide attention were the men’s ITT and the road race.

This was also clear at a glance from the event schedule.

September 22nd.

At 3:00 PM local time, the first event of this year’s World Championships officially began.

This year’s ITT race was 46.1 km long, with three intermediate time checks along the way at the 12.5 km, 26.6 km, and 36.7 km marks to track the cyclists’ real-time performance.

For an ITT, this was undoubtedly a very long distance.

Even for the very best cyclists, finishing the race would require over fifty minutes of immense endurance.

Meanwhile, weaker cyclists might even take over an hour.

This was the ultimate test of a cyclist’s threshold riding ability.

At the same time, while this course didn’t have any difficult climbs that could be categorized, the middle section contained five consecutive short climbs.

The first climb peaked at the 21.5 km mark, was 700 meters long, and had an average gradient of 5.3%.

The second climb peaked at the 26.5 km mark, which was the high point of the second time check. It was 2.4 km long with an average gradient of 4.9%.

It’s worth noting that this section also included a difficult 600-meter stretch with an average gradient of 8.5%.

And after the second intermediate time check, at the 29 km mark, there was a short 400-meter climb with an average gradient of 6.7%.

At the 30 km mark was a short, steep 200-meter climb with an average gradient reaching 7.1%.

The final climb peaked at the 32 km mark. It was also only 200 meters long, but its average gradient was a staggering 8.4%.

In short, the course was characterized by Daping Road sections at the beginning and end, demanding exceptional threshold riding ability from the cyclists.

The middle section, with its series of short, steep, rolling hills, was a major test of the cyclists’ ability to recover between anaerobic efforts.

If a cyclist pushed too hard in the middle section and burned too much energy—for instance, by accumulating excessive lactic acid—they would inevitably lose a disastrous amount of time on the final Daping Road section, which was over ten kilometers long.

How to properly pace oneself was the most critical skill in an ITT.

Huang Chong had his share of wins and losses in ITT races this year. He’d competed in quite a few, so he could be considered experienced.

However, since he was representing the National Team, the start order was determined by national points rankings and historical World Championships results.

Evenepoel was the champion of last year’s World Championships ITT, so he was naturally rider number 1 and would be the last to start.

As for Huang Chong, based on China’s points ranking from last year, he would be starting 30th. Even though he had helped his country rack up a ton of points near the end of the season, China had only finished ranked 30th globally.

For someone considered one of the top contenders for the win, starting so early was undoubtedly a major disadvantage.

The riders starting after him, especially the top experts among the last ten to depart, could definitely use his split times as a reference to pace themselves.

But these were the rules set by the UCI, so there was nothing he could say.

Anyway, he had raked in a massive amount of UCI points in the World Tour this year. Besides increasing his own FTP Power, his points also counted toward the national total.

It was a terrifying amount—several thousand points in a single season. He was currently ranked securely in the top three among all World Tour Cyclists.

In the future, when the China Team participated in international competitions, his points alone would be enough to secure multiple entry spots.

“Huang Chong, just do your best in today’s race. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

As the race was about to begin, Coach Han spoke to Huang Chong while he was warming up on the stationary trainer:

“Our main focus still has to be on the road race on the final day. It would be great to get on the podium in the ITT, of course, but if it drains you too much and affects the road race, it’s not worth the trade-off.”

In fact, when arranging the roster for this year’s World Championships, Coach Han and the entire National Team staff had held intense discussions back in China.

Regarding the ITT in particular, someone in the meeting had proposed letting China’s best time trialists besides Huang Chong—like Xue Ming or Miao Chengshuo—compete in the international event to gain experience.

But in the end, these proposals were rejected.

The General Administration still chose to have Huang Chong tackle both events and go all out.

True, winning a World Championships title was incredibly difficult, but with Huang Chong’s ability, he had a realistic shot at the podium in both events.

As for Xue Ming, Miao Chengshuo, and the others, while they were indeed top-tier time trialists in China, the gap was quite large when looking at the international level.

An athlete’s prime is limited, and Huang Chong was in his peak ascent. His performance this year had been flawless. It was only reasonable for the General Administration to want him to help the nation achieve its best results yet at a major international event, making new history as soon as possible.