After Huang Chong crossed the finish line first, Milan came through in second place a full seven seconds behind.
The moment he crossed the line, he climbed off his road bike and quickly lay down on the road to rest where he was.
It was clear just how difficult it was to ride the final 500-meter steep slope, with an average gradient of 8.7%, entirely anaerobically.
In his previous life, Milan had relied on this sudden anaerobic attack out of the saddle to win both the stage and overall titles at the Tour of Guangxi.
But this time, Huang Chong, who had learned Jumbo–Visma Team's tactics in advance, stuck tightly to the rider trying to steal a win and ruthlessly took the red jersey from him with even stronger anaerobic sprinting ability.
Next, Cofidis rider Rémy Rochas crossed the line in third, nine seconds behind Huang Chong.
From EF Education rider Hugh Carthy in fourth through tenth place, everyone crossed together with the main group and no time gaps.
Yet without exception, everyone behind them had been dropped by Huang Chong's stronger explosive power by a full fifteen seconds on the final 500-meter climb.
With the stage winner receiving a ten-second time bonus, second place six seconds, third four seconds, and fourth one second, the live top five in the general classification after the Nongla stage was completely different from the previous three days.
Listed by [Rank, Name, Team/Country, Total Time], they were:
1,Huang Chong,CHINA,13:05:22
2,Milan,Jumbo-Visma,+0:11
3,Rémy Rochas,Cofidis,+0:15
4,Hugh Carthy,EF Education,+O:24
5,Louis Barré,Team Arkéa Samsic,+0:25
Whether it was the fourteen UCI WorldTour teams, the three Pro teams, Coach Han, or cycling fans across the country, everyone was surely stunned by this result!
No one could have imagined that Huang Chong could defeat so many world-class riders on a UCI WorldTour