Chapter 481 - 226: Being Too Strong Attracts Attention

September 29th, 10:40 AM local time.

The most important of all the remaining road cycling races of the 2024 season had officially begun.

Although the Tour of Lombardy, one of the five Monuments of cycling, was still set to take place in Italy in October.

But even so, the Tour of Lombardy’s prestige could in no way compare to that of the Men’s Elite World Championships.

After all, the Lombardy course was dominated by climbs with massive elevation gain. It was practically Poga?ar’s backyard and wasn’t suited for a classics rider like van der Poel.

This made the sole autumn classic far less suited to all types of riders than the World Championships, and thus naturally offered much less of a spectacle.

Huang Chong was dressed in the bright red kit of the China National Team. And since he was allowed to ride his Olympic Golden Chariot in the mass-start race, he remained an incredibly eye-catching and stylish figure among the field of over two hundred, even as the sole participant from China.

Of course, as dazzling as he was, his loneliness was just as real.

The feeling of being all alone was never a pleasant one.

It was a stark contrast to the Slovenia Team. Their national kit was a brilliant aquamarine, and with eight riders racing together as a unit, they were truly impossible to miss.

After a race official on the roadside fired the starting pistol, the massive peloton of 206 riders officially set off from the starting arch, making their way toward the finish line.

Of course, the initial pace wasn’t fast, as everyone had to follow the lead car for a five-kilometer neutralized start.

Huang Chong tucked himself in at the rear of the main peloton, not bothering to push toward the front at the start.

The total distance of the World Championships was a grueling 273.9 km, almost identical to the Paris Olympic Games.

In a one-day classic of this length, none of the main contenders would launch an attack in the first hundred-plus kilometers.

And when riding in the group, the closer one was to the rear, the better the drafting effect.

He definitely had to conserve as much energy as possible during this initial hundred-plus kilometers of aerobic warm-up and coasting.

Otherwise, if he expended too much energy too early, he would never be able to maintain a high-power output all the way to the finish line once the race entered its crucial latter half, especially without teammates to help him draft and lead the pace.

This year’s World Championships started in Winterthur, Switzerland, with the finish line naturally set in the major city of Zurich.

The entire course was full of rolling terrain. Although each climb wasn’t long, there was no shortage of incredibly difficult, short, steep ramps.

The first 86 kilometers consisted of a point-to-point section from Winterthur to Zurich, which the riders would only have to traverse once.

This section featured three officially designated climbs.

The summit of the first climb, the Buch am Irchel, was at the 27.5 km mark of the course.

This was a low-difficulty climb. Despite being 4.8 km long, it had an average gradient of only 4.2%. The steepest part was the final 800 meters before the summit, at 6.7%.

The summit of the second climb, the Kyburg, was at the 44 km mark.

This climb was far more difficult. Though a mere 1.3 km in length, its average gradient was a staggering 10.2%.

One 300-meter section of it had an average gradient that reached as high as 12%.

For climbers like Huang Chong, Poga?ar, and Evenepoel, this was undoubtedly a perfect place to warm up their legs early on.

After this climb, the riders would descend all the way to the 67 km mark, where they would encounter the third climb: the Suessblatz.

This climb was also quite difficult, stretching for 1.7 km with an average gradient of 8.7%.

A 400-meter section of it reached a gradient of 11%.

After completing these three climbs, the race from the 86 km mark to the finish would become a seven-lap circuit race around the Zurich area, featuring repeated short, steep climbs.

Like the riders from other nations, Huang Chong had of course used the preceding rest days to train on the circuit, so he was already intimately familiar with the final seven laps.

He knew that each of the seven final laps would take them over two short, steep climbs, and these two climbs were back-to-back.

The first climb was the Bergstrasse. It was only 800 meters long, but the average gradient was a steep 7.1%, while the maximum gradient hit 17.2%.

Riding such a precipitous, short climb once or twice might be manageable for any rider.

But having to ride it seven times would undoubtedly be pure torture for a heavier classics rider like van der Poel.

However, what was even more terrifying was that immediately following the Bergstrasse was another, even more difficult short, steep climb called the Witikon.

This climb was 2.6 km long. Although its overall average gradient was only 5.3%, this was only because the middle of the climb included a downhill section, which brought down the average.

Immediately after that small downhill section, riders would hit the steepest part of the entire course, with a gradient reaching a staggering 20.7%.

Climbing two such monstrously steep, short climbs back-to-back, seven times in a row, would take an immense toll on every single rider.

After the 5 km neutralized start, the lead car immediately pulled off the course.

This meant the all-out assault for the right to wear the World Championships’ Rainbow Jersey for a year had officially begun.

Huang Chong had expected the main peloton to let a breakaway group go from the start, just as they had at the Olympics. But after riding with the pack for a few kilometers, he suddenly realized that in a one-day race with Poga?ar, a breakaway group simply couldn’t get away.