Chapter 476 - 223: Top-tier ITT Performance, Crazy Overtaking Finish (Part 2)

Huang Chong’s desire to win the ITT, or rather, his confidence, wasn’t very high.

If he were starting last, he could have pushed hard on the rolling climbs in the middle section, depending on his condition on the day.

But starting 30th, there was very little he could do.

All he could do was try to stay in one piece and finish the whole race.

He nodded and said,

"I’ll just do my best, Coach Han."

In truth, his own focus was also on the road race.

Not only was the Rainbow Jersey for the road race more valuable, but he also knew the history of the road race from his past life.

Although his participation would surely change the course of the race compared to his past life, he at least had advance knowledge of the tactical intentions of Slovenia and Poga?ar.

And the road race was all about winning through chaos. As a solo rider, as long as he could maintain peak condition, anything was possible.

The ITT, after all, was a solo mode.

The riders were just competing on individual ability.

There were no tactical variations, no team coordination.

Going all out from the start really wasn’t a good option.

To put it more bluntly, he was the only participant from the men’s China Team. If he cracked early, it would be all over.

As the official start time arrived, the first rider to go made his way to the starting ramp.

For this year’s World Championships ITT, the start and finish lines were in different locations.

The starting point was inside a stadium in central Zurich. The riders needed to ride nearly 20km east, navigate a huge U-turn via a climb, and then ride for another 20km or so along the lake road back to the city center.

The starting interval between each rider was one and a half minutes.

The first rider to start was Charles Kagimu from Uganda.

His ability wasn’t considered very strong; he definitely had no chance of scoring UCI points.

Huang Chong only watched the early starters for a short while before tuning them out.

Because none of them could even reach 50 km/h on the flats.

At that level, they had absolutely no hope of a high ranking.

However, the UCI was all about spreading the love. The World Championships was a nation-based competition, primarily embodying the Olympic spirit, so it certainly couldn’t be like the Tour de France, which brings together over 100 of the world’s strongest riders to compete.

The commentators on European Sports were also just going through the motions with these early riders, basically introducing some rider info and chatting idly the rest of the time.

They were mainly discussing the likely course of the race, making predictions for the eventual winner, and so on.

However, as Huang Chong’s start time approached, Steve naturally perked up:

"Huang Chong of the China Team is about to start. I don’t think I need to give too much of an introduction for this rider.

He is absolutely one of the favorites to win today.

The only thing working against him is that he’s starting too early.

Jimmy, do you think Huang Chong has a shot at the gold medal?"

Jimmy replied bluntly,

"I think aiming for a medal might be more realistic for him than going for the win.

This year’s ITT course has a certain amount of climbing, but the difficulty is limited, after all.

His real advantage lies in his climbing ability.

Plus, just as you said, his starting position is too early.

When the other experts like Remco, Ganna, Affini, Stefan King, Tarling, and the rest start later, he’ll basically have already finished. They can use his split times as a reference for their own race.

In a race where you’re being used as a benchmark, unless his form is absolutely phenomenal and he dares to go all out from the start, holding nothing back...

...otherwise, the later riders should have no major problem beating his time.

And we all know that in a flat time trial, Remco and Ganna are the true kings.

Huang Chong is undoubtedly very strong, but he has never beaten Remco in a flat time trial."

"That’s right, I feel the same way.

And it’s worth noting that since the Tour de France, Huang Chong has not only represented his country at the Paris Olympics but also immediately went on to compete in the Vuelta a Espa?a.

After such a high-intensity block of racing, it remains to be seen whether he has enough energy to perform at his best right now.

But we’ll have to see what happens during the race. For now, let’s turn our attention to him!"

As Steve finished speaking, Huang Chong launched himself smoothly from the starting ramp during the chief commissaire’s five-second countdown.

Although he was an Olympic champion, he couldn’t ride a Golden Chariot or wear a golden helmet in the ITT.

Because the Olympic ITT champion was Evenepoel, that honor belonged to him.

It’s worth mentioning that Evenepoel’s TT Golden Chariot paint scheme was completely different from his.

After starting, Huang Chong’s speed was like lightning.

He immediately hit a speed of nearly 50 km/h. After navigating the bend at the stadium exit and hitting the long straight, he shifted onto his aero bars and pushed his average speed to between 53-55 km/h.

And when he reached the first intermediate time check, his time was only 13 minutes and 40 seconds.

This time was tens of seconds faster than all the riders who had started before him.

The fans back in China were undoubtedly thrilled to see this.

This was the raw power of a top-tier rider. Huang Chong was now firmly in the ranks of the world’s best.

"Awesome! At Huang Chong’s current speed, the riders up ahead are about to get eaten up like a game of Snake."

"Let’s guess, how many riders will he overtake before he finishes?"

"Based on the start times, I think he’ll pass at least three—"

"I bet four!"

...

And just as the Chinese fans had guessed, shortly after Huang Chong passed the first time check, even before the first section of the climb began, a rider who had started before him was mercilessly overtaken.

This kind of lead, born from absolute ability, was just completely unreasonable.

Then the climb began. After finishing the first two climbing sections and reaching the second intermediate time check, his total time was 32 minutes and 5 seconds.

This time was truly terrifying.

Among all the riders who had passed the two time checks, he had beaten the best time by more than three minutes.

This left Steve and Jimmy, who were broadcasting live, and indeed cycling fans all over the world, completely dumbfounded.

Subsequently, during the next three climbing sections, another rider was overtaken by him.

This meant he had now overtaken the two riders who started ahead of him.

"Huang Chong’s performance is just merciless—he’s riding at such a speed, can the riders behind him really beat it? I have my doubts!"

"He really is performing too well, especially on this climb. When the later starters see this, they’re probably going to break a sweat."

And while Steve and Jimmy were bantering back and forth, Huang Chong soon reached the third intermediate time check, with a total time of 43 minutes and 10 seconds.

And just before passing the time check, he overtook yet another rider.

At this point, the final 10km was just pure Daping Road.

Huang Chong maintained his heart rate and power output, ensuring a constant effort with the most stable cadence possible. Then, with about 1km to go, he actually managed to overtake another rider.

He flew along the course, incredibly overtaking a total of four riders, and finally, with a time of 53:09.63, he successfully claimed the top spot on the provisional leaderboard.

As for his average speed for the race, it was a staggering 52 km/h.

The result was no surprise: he had opened up a massive gap of 6 minutes and 30 seconds over the current second-place rider.

For such a result, the trio of Rogli?, Ganna, and Evenepoel—who were the last to start and were currently heading to the ramp—were undoubtedly extremely shocked and feeling immense pressure.

Huang Chong’s finishing speed could only be described as insane.

The only consolation was that during their own rides, they could refer to Huang Chong’s split times at every stage to adjust their own power output.

...