Chapter 338 - 177: An All-or-Nothing Gamble, Killing the Championship Suspense Early

Soler of UAE Team.

Nicolas Prodhomme and Dorian Godon of Decathlon Team.

Darren Rafferty of EF Education Team.

Warren Barguil of Team DSM.

Koen Bouwman of Visma Team.

Guillaume Martin of Cofidis Team.

Davide Formolo of Movistar Team.

Mark Donovan of Q36.5 Team.

Kevin Geniets of FDJ Team.

And Mathijs Paasschens of Lotto Team.

Faced with such a massive breakaway lineup, the pressure on the peloton was undoubtedly immense.

It was essentially a small peloton.

If the time gap became too large, losing the stage win was a very real possibility.

Especially for Bora Team, they were determined to win the Queen Stage today to help Roglič lock down the overall title in advance, so the difficulty of controlling the race increased dramatically.

Huang Chong’s task for this stage was, of course, to conserve his energy for the final HC Level climb.

To be honest, Aldag truly hadn’t expected his abilities to improve by leaps and bounds to this extent.

He was just a first-year rookie, yet he could already compete in such a demanding stage.

’If Huang Chong rides for a few more seasons, will the Tour de France champion still be Pogačar and Vingegaard?’

He sat in the team car, watching the back of Huang Chong, who had been protecting Roglič for the entire race. Now, as Huang Chong led Roglič toward the final HC Level climb, Aldag couldn’t help but start pondering this question ahead of time.

He knew he was already seeing the future of the Bora Team with crystal clarity.

Originally, they had planned to focus on developing their local rider: Lipowitz.

But as things stood now, no matter how well Lipowitz developed in the future, it was unlikely he could ever be on par with Huang Chong.

Because he saw that with 5km to go, Huang Chong didn’t even seem to care what the other team leaders had left or if they could even respond. He simply glanced back, gave Roglič a nod, and then surged to the very front of the peloton, pulling his leader along in a furious charge toward the finish line.

Seeing this, Steve from European Sports immediately and accurately described Huang Chong’s intention in the live broadcast:

"The Chinese rider has taken the initiative with 5km to go, leading out his team leader and pushing to the very front of the group.

Look at his condition and expression right now! He’s clearly planning to fully leverage his climbing advantage to end this entire Tour de Dauphine right here and now!

Oh my goodness!!

His riding style right now is like an all-or-nothing gamble! He’s using his raw power to completely drop and crush every rider who can’t hang on during this HC Level climb!!

He’s successfully pulled Roglič clear!!

The breakaway riders up ahead are being reeled in one by one, just like in the game of Snake!!

And behind them, the trio of Jorgenson, Ciccone, and Lascano have already been gapped by nearly half a minute—

Congratulations to Roglič! Congratulations to Bora Team for winning the Queen Stage of the Tour de Dauphine once again!

And at the same time, we can probably offer our early congratulations to Roglič for winning the overall title of this year’s Tour de Dauphine!

His current lead in the general classification over the second-place Jorgenson is a full two minutes!"

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In fact, just as Steve had predicted, when Stage 7 ended, the suspense for the overall title of this year’s Tour de Dauphine had been completely eliminated by Huang Chong.

That’s right. Although Roglič was still first in the general classification, any fan who had watched this year’s race knew that he owed all four of his stage wins to Huang Chong’s help.

While Roglič likely had the ability to win the title on his own, putting Huang Chong’s contributions aside, the margin of victory would never have been this wide.

Especially on the final day of racing, Roglič, despite having a two-minute advantage, actually blew up early on a climb in Stage 8.

As a result, Huang Chong had to give up any thought of competing for a stage win himself, deliberately slowing down to pace Roglič to the finish line.

But even so, Roglič still finished 1 minute and 20 seconds ahead of the second-place Jorgenson, successfully securing the overall title for this year’s Tour de Dauphine.

Having won four stages, he also took home the Dash King Green Jersey.

As for Huang Chong, he originally had a chance to challenge for second place in the general classification.

But because Roglič fell apart on the final stage, Huang Chong had to drop back and lead him, ultimately getting gapped by half a minute by the other teams’ leaders and finishing only 10th in the general classification.

Fortunately, he still had two second-place stage finishes, so his trip to the Dauphine wasn’t for nothing. He earned 165 UCI points, boosting his FTP Power by another 3 watts to 463 watts.

But sacrificing the improvement of his personal stats was, in the end, worth it.

Because after they returned to Germany, even before the Tour of Switzerland had begun, Aldag had already finalized the eight-man roster for Bora Team’s entry in this year’s Tour de France.

Not only was Huang Chong’s name prominently on the list, but he was also the team’s number two rider!

However, before officially heading to France, the Bora Team had another, more important matter to officially announce.

The acquisition of team CEO Ralph Denke’s shares by the Red Bull Group had finally been approved and successfully completed.

The team’s name would also be officially changed from the original Bora-Hansgrohe to:

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Team.

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