Chapter 442 - 212: The Last Race Day of the Second Week Arrives

After receiving Aldag’s tactical instructions, Huang Chong silently stayed in the peloton, making no further moves and focusing entirely on conserving his energy.

Maintaining a steady, aerobic pace in a Grand Tour was equivalent to using the race as a training session. Although it meant he couldn’t contend for the stage win, it wasn’t without its benefits for a rider.

In fact, long-distance aerobic training was the most common type of training that professional Road Cyclists did.

Only by constantly racking up mileage could a rider best balance their body’s energy levels.

So, Huang Chong let the breakaway riders battle it out amongst themselves up the road.

In the end, after Stage 12 concluded, the stage victory was unexpectedly claimed by Castrillo of the wildcard Professional Team: Kern Pharma Team.

For Huang Chong, winning today’s stage wouldn’t have actually offered much benefit.

It would have just been one more entry in his record of Grand Tour stage wins.

People no longer had a huge reaction when he won a single stage.

But for Castrillo, who was still on a Professional Team, snatching a Grand Tour victory from a grueling breakaway in front of eighteen World Tour Teams held an extraordinary significance and value.

This could absolutely be considered making a stunning debut.

At the same time, it was like earning an early admission ticket to a World Tour Team for the following year.

His personal market value would also surely skyrocket.

This had thoroughly opened a bright window of opportunity on his career path as a professional Road Cyclist.

Of course, all of this was undoubtedly thanks to the general classification contenders, like Huang Chong, deliberately letting these breakaway stages go in the Grand Tour.

However, what surprised Huang Chong and the entire Red Bull Bora Team was that when Stage 13 arrived, a large number of breakaway riders launched attacks again.

Meanwhile, the other general classification teams, like Decathlon, UAE, Movistar Team, and EF Education, offered no response whatsoever. At the same time, their support riders didn’t participate in pulling the peloton for the entire stage.

Huang Chong found this phenomenon quite perplexing.

’These guys really aren’t in a hurry at all!’

’Have they all completely lost the desire to fight for my Red Jersey?’

’But the thing is, the entire Vuelta a Espa?a is only just past the halfway point. Isn’t it a bit too early for these top World Tour cyclists to be giving up now?’

"Director, has the race pace at the Vuelta a Espa?a been this calm in previous years?

From what I can see of the other teams’ posture today, it doesn’t seem to match your prediction.

I don’t think they plan to attack at all today—"

Following behind the peloton, Aldag was also completely baffled when he heard Huang Chong’s question.

Under normal circumstances, on any stage with a summit finish, a general classification team would definitely come out and try to attack.

It was just like in the recent Tour de France; even though Vingegaard was already a significant amount of time behind Poga?ar, the Visma Team still launched a powerful effort to control the pace and attack on the Baiye Plateau stage.

Even if the attack ultimately failed, they still had to make an effort and create some action.

But this year’s Vuelta a Espa?a was indeed a bit too placid. The racing atmosphere was surprisingly peaceful and friendly, as if everyone was particularly nonchalant about whether they could win the overall leader’s Red Jersey.

"Today’s race pace is indeed a bit too calm."

Aldag replied after a moment of thought.

"So, should we still ride according to the pre-race plan?"

Huang Chong was naturally most concerned about the tactics.

According to the pre-race plan, they had intended to take control of the pace on the final climb today to set him up for a solo attack.

But if the other teams had no desire to attack and were unwilling to help control the peloton, then his team—the team of the Red Jersey wearer—would have to lead the pack for the entire stage.

Under these circumstances, increasing the pace just to ensure he could attack in the final phase, purely for the sake of a stage win, was not a worthwhile trade-off.

Admittedly, Huang Chong was confident he could gain an advantage again on a long, steep climb.

If the peloton was controlled by his support riders and the time gap to the breakaway group wasn’t too large, he was also confident he could take the win.

But to use this kind of offensive tactic, which would exhaust his support riders for the entire day, in the middle of the second week was somewhat risky and unnecessary.

If today were Stage 15, for instance, then it might be worth actively pursuing.

After all, that would be the last race day of the second week. After finishing, the support riders would have a rest day to recover and would surely bounce back from the fatigue.

However, today was only Stage 13, and the difficulty of Stage 15 was no less than today’s stage.

"No, don’t."

Aldag replied after a moment of consideration:

"Since the other teams are still unwilling to lead and control the pace today, and we’re the ones leading the general classification, why should we be the ones in a hurry?

Let’s just ride at our own most comfortable pace, just like we do in training.

Anyway, the smallest time gap between you and anyone in today’s breakaway group in the general classification is over half an hour. They pose no threat whatsoever.

As long as the other general classification teams are unwilling to take the lead, we’ll just keep letting the breakaway go. You can also take this opportunity to get more rest.

I’d like to see which of these old foxes is the first to lose their nerve!"

Riding his Olympic-painted Golden Chariot and wearing his Olympic golden helmet, Huang Chong was, to be honest, quite disappointed by this answer.

From a personal standpoint, he naturally wanted to ride his unique, dragon-patterned golden bike to a stage victory in the Grand Tour as soon as possible.