Chapter 459 217: Even Among Geniuses, There Is a Gap

However, the Vuelta a España featured more steep First Category Climbs and more stages that favored breakaway riders. Therefore, it was difficult even for the Red Jersey holder to snowball climbing points.

Two kilometers later, after a trio including Vine had broken away, the peloton reached another gentle slope, and eight more riders launched an attack.

Prominent among them was Soler, the UAE Deputy Commander, who was already wearing the Polka Dot Jersey for the day.

The other seven were Thomas Champion from Cofidis Team.

Sylvain Monique from Lotto Team.

Carlos Canar from Movistar Team.

Clemente Bette from Decathlon Team.

Castrillo from Kern Pharma Team.

Jack Haig from Bahrain Victory Team.

And Enzo Leijnse from Team DSM.

Seeing this eleven-man breakaway group, Huang Chong was crystal clear about each rider's intentions.

First, none of these eleven riders posed any threat to him in the general classification.

Even Jack Haig, the highest-ranked among the eleven in the GC after Stage 19—sitting at 19th place overall—was already a staggering 53 minutes behind him.

Therefore, Haig's decision to join the breakaway today was definitely not an attempt to overturn the GC standings or to compete for climbing points.

Instead, as the lead climber for Bahrain Victory Team, his only option was to use a breakaway to vie for this final stage victory.

His team had yet to secure a single victory in the entire Vuelta a España; they were on track to leave completely empty-handed.

Even knowing how difficult it would be, Haig was sure to seize this one last chance.

Second, besides Haig, there was Castrillo, who had been a standout performer in this Vuelta a España. He had also joined the breakaway to make a run for the stage win.

However, he also had 37 points in the mountains classification.

If he managed to take first-place points over every categorized climb from the breakaway, he also had a chance of snatching the Polka Dot Jersey.

Thus, his presence in the breakaway today posed a certain threat to both Huang Chong and the UAE Team.

As for Soler and Vine joining the breakaway together, it was clearly a joint effort to help each other secure the King of the Mountains' Polka Dot Jersey.

They held no illusions about winning the stage.

As for the remaining seven, Canar of Movistar Team and Bette of Decathlon Team were undoubtedly tactical riders placed in the break by their teams, hoping to create more strategic options for their leaders as the race neared the finish.

The other five had purer motives: to get television exposure for their teams and to compete for the honor of the final Most Combative Rider award of this Vuelta a España.

In short, everyone in today's breakaway group had their own agenda.

However, as far as Huang Chong was concerned, he didn't have to worry about the breakaway's schemes just yet.

The only thing he needed to be concerned about was that not long after the race started, Vlasov—who had put in a monstrous effort pulling for him yesterday—had dropped straight to the back of the group on the very first climb!

At the same time, Martínez from the Red Bull Bora Sub Team, which had planned to control the race all day, had only just finished a short pull at the front of the peloton on a climb when he suddenly developed a stomachache.

The team car came up to him, and after an examination by the team doctor, it was discovered that he had food poisoning. He was forced to abandon the race.

When Aldag relayed this news to Huang Chong, he was utterly dumbfounded.

'What the hell?'

'My own support squad got food poisoning on the final mountain stage?'

The entire team ate all their meals together.

Professional athletes always adhere to a strict, clean diet, which meant their digestive systems had very little resistance to contaminated food.

This could easily turn into a team-wide food poisoning incident.

'Though I'm not worried about myself—I've been immune to viruses for a long time now—if my entire support squad gets wiped out today, this is going to get ugly!'

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