At this point, Bora had yet to receive Red Bull's acquisition and sponsorship.
Although the team had made bold, ambitious moves during this winter training period and poached Roglič from Jumbo–Visma Team, Roglič was a top-tier star rider. He was currently on vacation and did not need to report to the team early like a rookie such as Huang Chong.
During the Tour of Guangxi, Huang Chong had met Bora's team leader—its sporting director, Rolf Aldag—once before.
He knew that the man was Bora's head coach and the person in charge of rider management.
As for the team manager, Bora's founder Ralph Denk, he handled business and finances and was not directly involved in managing the riders.
Aldag had never imagined that this Chinese road cyclist would ultimately choose to join Bora.
As far as he knew, after winning the Tour of Guangxi, quite a few UCI WorldTour teams had approached him with contract offers. Bora had initially only meant to give it a try.
Later, after several rounds of negotiations with the agent arranged by the Chinese side, Bora kept raising its offer from the casual terms it had initially proposed. Only then did they gradually realize that this Chinese rider seemed extremely interested in Bora.
Once they held an internal meeting and received approval from team manager Denk, explicitly guaranteeing in the contract that he could compete in at least ten UCI WorldTour races, the two sides reached a verbal agreement for him to join the team.
Naturally, Huang Chong had not come here today to sign with the team immediately.
UCI WorldTour teams were extremely strict about whether a rider was in perfect health and whether his abilities met their signing standards.
Before officially signing, he still had to pass the team's medical examination, performance tests, and