Chapter 295 - 168: From This Day Forward, Everyone Will Sit Up and Take Notice

After the race started, a group of nine riders immediately chose to break away.

But unlike Flèche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race, in this kind of top-tier one-day race, the breakaway riders were predominantly from World Tour Teams.

After all, the breakaway group gets a considerable amount of camera time for the first two-thirds of the race.

For many of the lower-ranked World Tour Teams, the main reason for participating is to advertise for the team.

They don’t really have any ambitions for the final general classification.

But in a race watched by a global audience, both the teams and their sponsors know that having a rider in the live broadcast for five or six hours is far more cost-effective than spending millions of euros on a few dozen seconds of primetime advertising.

Among the World Tour Teams, Astana Cyclist Christian Scaroni, Gil Gelders of the Quick Step Team, Rémy Rochas of the FDJ Team, Lilian Calmejane of the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux Team, Enzo Leijnse of Team DSM, and Iván Romeo of the Movistar Team were among those who chose to break away.

As for the Professional Teams, the TotalEnergies Team even sent two riders to join the breakaway: Fabien Doubey and Paul Ourselin.

In addition, there was also Loïc Vliegen from the Bingoal WB Team.

Since Aldag had instructed him before the race to focus on studying Pogačar’s riding style, Huang Chong stuck close to the UAE Team’s train, led by one of his own team’s domestiques.

He couldn’t care less that the breakaway riders had quickly opened a four-and-a-half-minute gap on the peloton.

In a race like Liège-Bastogne-Liège, especially with Pogačar participating, other teams hardly had to worry about controlling the race.

To secure the victory, Pogačar’s six domestiques on the UAE Team would keep a tight leash on the gap to the breakaway. This was a fact every team understood.

During the first half of the race, the peloton rode through Bastogne City and well into the second half without any major incidents or fluctuations in pace.

However, as the peloton reached the 160-kilometer mark, after nearly four hours of cruising and conserving energy on the rolling roads, the race approached the second climb of its latter half, the Côte de Mont-le-Soie. Aldag’s voice immediately crackled in Huang Chong’s earpiece:

"Huang, the race is about to get serious. How are your energy levels?"

Although Huang Chong had won the previous race, Flèche Wallonne, his overall energy expenditure hadn’t actually been that high.

To ensure safety while riding in the rain, the average speed for the race had only been 42 km/h.

For a World Tour race, that was a considerably slow pace.

In today’s Liège Race, the temperature was low and the weather was persistently gloomy. Everyone was worried about rain. Coupled with the fact that the entire course consisted of winding mountain roads, the UAE Team, responsible for controlling the pace, kept the peloton’s speed down. Over the first 160 kilometers, the speed barely reached 40 km/h.

After four days of rest, a young rider like Huang Chong, who had just been cruising in the peloton, would naturally not feel fatigued at this speed. He replied:

"Feeling good so far. No problems!"

"Good. But on this upcoming Côte de Mont-le-Soie climb, you need to watch for a change in pace from the UAE Team."

"From here on, their domestiques will start to pick up the pace on the remaining six or seven climbs to wear down and thin out the peloton."

"Remember to stay firmly in the front half of the peloton. Don’t drop to the back. If a crash happens, even if you aren’t involved, the roads on the Liège Race course are very narrow. It’s easy to get held up."

"If that happens, the UAE train will accelerate instantly. By the time you try to chase back on, you’ll be facing a gap of tens of seconds. It’s not worth the risk!"

Huang Chong was already positioned securely next to the UAE Team. Vlasov was setting his pace just ahead, while his other teammates were mostly positioned toward the rear of the peloton.

At the front of the peloton, alongside the UAE Team, were a large number of riders from EF Education and Ineos.

Both of those teams had general classification contenders—Carapaz and Pidcock—so it wasn’t surprising to see them rotating at the front with the UAE Team.

He replied immediately:

"Got it, Director. Understood!"

Just as their brief conversation ended, the peloton officially began the Côte de Mont-le-Soie climb.

The short climb was 1.8 kilometers long with an average gradient of 6.6%.

It seemed to be of average difficulty, but between the 900- and 1200-meter marks, a 300-meter section suddenly steepened to a punishing 12.3% gradient.

Therefore, while no team would launch an attack on a climb like this, it was perfect for increasing the pace to wear down bigger Classics specialists, like van der Poel.

And just as the experienced Aldag had predicted, upon reaching the steepest part of the climb, a UAE Team domestique moved to the very front of the group, got out of the saddle, and started to accelerate.

They had six domestiques in total. Aside from the two needed to control the main pace, the job of the remaining four was to take turns pulling on the climbs. Their goal was to brutally thin out and exhaust the large peloton over the next sixty kilometers.