When Zhang Yi's gaze fell on Huang Chong, the latter naturally noticed he was being watched.
After all, as the climb grew increasingly difficult, more than two-thirds of the seventeen-man team had already dropped off before they even reached the final ten kilometers of winding mountain road.
Now, including him, only a mere six riders were left.
He had been at the very back of the group, so it was difficult for him not to notice the slightest movement from the riders ahead.
In professional racing terms, the six of them now formed the lead group.
The three female riders who had just dropped back, now visibly falling further and further behind, formed the second group.
As for the third group, and even the fourth group further back, they had fallen so far behind that Huang Chong could no longer see them.
But ignoring those who had long since dropped off, Huang Chong noticed that Zhang Yi's expression held a hint of surprise, expectation, and admiration.
'He knew right then that joining the Windward Team was a done deal.'
'If he could keep up this far and still not make the team, then the problem wouldn't be his ability—it would be Zhang Yi's judgment.'
It was simple. Never mind his sprinting ability on flat stages or where he'd rank in the team for that.
At least on a mountain climb, he had already outperformed two-thirds of the entire team.
As for the remaining five, including Zhang Yi himself, Huang Chong had no intention of competing with them to see who would be the first to crest Taizi Peak.
After all, it didn't matter in the slightest.
Even if he couldn't become the Windward Team's top climber today, he was destined to leave them all in the dust eventually.
For him, the top priority was to complete the system's mission and reap the rewards.
But he was a newcomer with no systematic training. He had kept up the entire way. Now, they were entering the hairpin turns, where the gradient steepened, approaching its maximum of 12%. Everyone else was forced to stand on their pedals, faces flushed, gritting their teeth and fighting for every inch. They rocked their bikes, weaving back and forth as their average speed dropped to a pitiful sub-10 km/h—
Wang Qiang and the others, however, saw that Huang Chong, at the rear of their group, was also gritting his teeth and struggling to turn the cranks. But by rocking his bike with a steady rhythm, he was actually, inch by inch, overtaking them.
Then, with astonishing willpower, Huang Chong locked onto the captain's rhythm and pushed onward toward the summit finish.
Faced with this sight, "shock" was no longer enough to describe what they felt. Gasping for breath, they started to grumble:
"Shit... this guy... what the hell is with him?"
"I told you... Huang Chong, that kid... he's a wolf in sheep's clothing... He's not as simple as he looks—"
"His true ability... definitely... isn't what he showed us yesterday—"
"So... you think he was sandbagging last night?"
"But the question is... why hide his real strength... what for?"
And in the few dozen seconds they spent grumbling and speculating, Huang Chong and the captain rounded a U-turn ahead and vanished from sight.
On a long 12% climb, once a rider's energy reserves are depleted, even a five-meter gap to the person ahead can feel as vast and insurmountable as a chasm.
This is the brutal reality of road climbing. Once a rider's legs and stamina hit their limit, squeezing out even one more watt of power becomes an impossible dream.
And so, Wang Qiang and the other three could only watch helplessly as Huang Chong and the captain gradually widened the distance, unable to close the gap by even a single meter before the pair disappeared from view.
If this had been an official KOM climbing competition with the finish line at the summit of Taizi Peak, then victory would have undoubtedly belonged to either the captain or Huang Chong.
The four of them, on the other hand, had been decisively dropped by stronger legs on this most difficult part of the climb—the part closest to victory and the finish line.
It was much like a mountain stage in the Tour de France.
Race organizers always set the most difficult, HC-level climbs as the stage finish.
Unless a GC cyclist had already secured a commanding lead in the overall classification, allowing them to let a breakaway rider take the stage win.
Otherwise, on a long climb like this, only the world's strongest riders could be the first to crest the mountain and cross the finish line.
However, Huang Chong, who was still locked onto Zhang Yi's rhythm and charging toward the summit of Taizi Peak, had no idea that his move—rocking his bike to surge forward—had sparked such intense grumbling and envy from Wang Qiang and the others.
'He could only laugh bitterly to himself as he looked at the cycling data displayed on the system's computer.'
'He realized that on the 12% grade, his average speed was barely over 10 km/h—not much faster than Wang Qiang's group.'
'And that was after he had taken a Rapid Recovery Energy Bar at the foot of the mountain to top off his energy reserves.'
'But based on his experience watching the Tour de France, forget a 12% grade—even on gradients several percentage points steeper, a rider like Pogačar could still maintain an average speed of over 20 km/h.'
'So for the world's top professional climbers, a grade like the one on Taizi Peak was something they could tackle as if it were flat ground.'
'The gap is still huge. My 200-watt legs aren't even half as strong as a top-tier cyclist's.'
After Huang Chong passed the most difficult section of the climb, the road near the summit of Taizi Peak began to level out.
Unsurprisingly, during the final stage of the climb, he was dropped by Zhang Yi, the former Professional Cyclist.
Moreover, he could sense that Zhang Yi hadn't gone all out. At most, he was riding at his Zone 3 endurance pace.
Only on that short 12% section might his heart rate have reached his Zone 4 threshold.
Meanwhile, during the surge that dropped Wang Qiang and the other three, his own heart rate had skyrocketed to over 190, pushing him directly into his Zone 5 anaerobic range.
"Huang Chong, your climbing ability is absolutely astonishing!"
「Taizi Peak.」
Zhang Yi, the first to reach the viewing platform at the summit, was already resting when he saw Huang Chong cross the finish line just a dozen or so seconds later. His voice was filled with frank admiration.
The view from the summit of Taizi Peak was exceptionally wide. You could not only see far into the distance but also look down and have an unobstructed view of the hairpin turns below.
This meant that once riders started the final long climb, anyone who fell behind would be clearly visible to those who reached the top first.
The second group, containing Wang Qiang and the other three, was holding a steady pace.
Although they had been dropped by both Zhang Yi and Huang Chong on the toughest section, no one else from their group had fallen behind since.
They maintained a steady average speed, slowly rounding the final U-turn as they rode toward the summit finish.
But compared to Huang Chong and Zhang Yi, they would be at least two minutes behind by the time they reached the summit.
In the Tour de France, falling two minutes behind another team's leader on a single climbing stage would basically eliminate any hope of winning the overall title.
Hearing Zhang Yi's praise, Huang Chong merely offered a faint smile, showing little emotion.
In fact, after finishing the entire Taizi Peak climb, he suddenly realized the route was very similar to a mountain road back in his hometown of Xianyun County.
Both were winding mountain roads that climbed steadily upward for about twenty kilometers. In fact, the maximum gradient on the road in his hometown was even steeper.
Several of the highest peaks in Zhejiang Province were located in the Southwest Mountain Area, right where his hometown was.
Although the mountain near his hometown wasn't the highest peak in Zhejiang Province, or even the second highest, its vertical elevation was still greater than Taizi Peak's, reaching over 1,800 meters.
In his past life, he'd often ridden the winding mountain road that led to a terraced-field scenic area near his home.
So, after climbing Taizi Peak, he wasn't particularly amazed by the experience; it felt rather ordinary.
Still, he did his best to sound modest.
After all, he was still no match for Zhang Yi's current ability. He smiled and said:
"Captain Zhang, you're too kind. I'm still a long way from your level!"