Chapter 411 - 201: Vuelta a España Lineup Announced, Top Odds for Overall Champion (Part 2)

"What’s most commendable is the absolute rationality and composure Huang displayed throughout the entire race. It truly leaves me in awe!

It’s no exaggeration to say that our star rider now possesses all the comprehensive abilities required of a top-tier cyclist.

Furthermore, for the next five years, and even longer, he will be the cornerstone of our team’s future success!"

Despite the two core leaders of the team showering him with such lengthy praise, Huang Chong didn’t feel any pride.

His victory in the chaotic Olympic race had seemed meticulous and calm, but in reality, it wasn’t the result of a pre-planned tactical choice.

Not only was Coach Han incapable of such brilliant tactical planning, but Huang Chong himself was no prophet; everything just looked that way in hindsight.

He knew full well that during the race, he hadn’t considered so many complex tactical variations.

His only thought had been to ignore all attacks from other riders and just lock onto the ’Olympic champion’ from his previous life, trying to draw him out for a one-on-one duel.

Only then would he have a chance to beat Evenepoel in a climb or a final sprint—

And as it turned out, the real cycling genius was, in fact, Evenepoel.

The timing he chose to attack from the peloton and pull Huang Chong out was just too perfect.

Of course, that was also thanks to the Belgium National Team’s tactics.

They had Van Aert sacrificially mark van der Poel while placing their core hope for victory on Evenepoel, which allowed a cunning ’oriole’ like him to swoop in and snatch the prize.

Of course, the Olympics were over, and the victory was now a thing of the past. He had to compose himself and look ahead.

In August, besides the Vuelta a España, there were two other World Tour races on the calendar.

One was the San Sebastian Classic Race on the 10th of the month. Held in Spain, it served as a warm-up for the Vuelta a España.

The other was a week-long stage race, the Tour of Poland, held from August 12-18.

However, by the time Huang Chong returned to team headquarters, it was already the 8th. He still had to travel to Austria to participate in the design of his exclusive Olympic champion helmet for the Red Bull Group, and then attend a meeting with Lightning about the custom paint job for his Olympic gold bike. Therefore, he definitely wouldn’t have time for those two races.

Huang Chong had to pay close attention to the design of his custom bike and helmet.

After all, this was a unique honor, and on top of that, products from both companies would later be launched on the Chinese market.

He felt a responsibility to his many fans back in China to ensure they could buy desirable and comfortable products. This meant he had an obligation to personally participate in the design process, including quality control for the final versions.

If possible, he also wanted the two companies to incorporate traditional Chinese cultural elements into the designs.

After all, no matter how good a design from a foreign company looked, it would still just be a modern aesthetic.

Their understanding of traditional Chinese culture was simply not deep enough.

As he and Chen Junyi were attending the product design meetings, the Vuelta a España was drawing ever closer, and Aldag had to finalize the team’s roster for the Grand Tour.

For him, choosing the support riders was easy. The difficult part was selecting the Core Commander, a decision that required discussion with the boss beforehand.

Roglič, who had withdrawn from Stage 12 of the Tour de France, had been recovering for about a month and was nearly fit enough to race.

However, his back injury hadn’t fully healed. With another strong option available, the question was whether the team should push Roglič to make a comeback.

Huang Chong, who was still in Austria, of course knew that in his past life, Roglič had competed in that year’s Vuelta a España despite his back injury and even ended up winning.

The race itself had been a real roller coaster, though, and his victory had been a nail-biter.

But in that past life, the team had had no choice but to push Roglič to return for the Vuelta a España.

Back then, Huang Chong hadn’t been there to secure second place overall for the team in the Tour de France.

In fact, in that past life’s 2024 Tour de France, with both Roglič and Vlasov withdrawing, the Red Bull Bora Team had the worst performance of any team in the race.

Their results were abysmal—not a single stage win.

And their final prize money was the lowest of any team competing.

This was a far cry from the current year. Not only had Huang Chong secured second place in the Tour de France, but Martínez had also taken second overall in the Giro d’Italia. Coupled with Huang Chong’s brilliant and highly successful Spring Classics campaign, it was safe to say they were a top-tier team this year, second only to the United Arab Emirates.

So far, at least, their performance was certainly better and more impressive than Vismar’s, who had swept all three Grand Tours the previous year.

"Ralph, this year’s Vuelta a España is the Grand Tour we have the best chance of winning since our team’s transformation. We definitely can’t miss such a great opportunity.

But when it comes to selecting our leader, I’d like to get your opinion.

Primož is recovering well and is willing to race the Vuelta a España. The problem is, he hasn’t made a full recovery yet.

Then there’s Huang Chong. His strength has been proven time and again.

Plus, looking at his race schedule this year, he’s mostly done one-day races since the spring season began, so he isn’t too fatigued.