As Sam Welsford crossed the finish line first, Huang Chong, who had been riding at the very back of the peloton, crossed the line alongside the main group with no time gap.
He did not collapse after three consecutive high-intensity water runs.
However, when the race officials quickly displayed the Stage 1 overall standings during the post-race broadcast, many domestic fans saw that he had crossed the line near the very end, ranked somewhere past 100th place, and felt rather uncomfortable about it.
In competitive sports, everyone hoped that the rider they cared about—especially Huang Chong, China's sole representative—would contend for the championship rather than worry about team interests.
As a result, even after hearing the streamers' explanations, many fans could not help criticizing Bora Team's coaching staff for not valuing Huang Chong enough, with some even claiming there was an element of racial discrimination involved.
Many other fans felt that, as a rookie, Huang Chong's ability to take the start and finish the race safely was already a victory.
As for some trolls pretending to be fans, they even attacked Huang Chong for attention, claiming that he only had backmarker-level strength in the UCI WorldTour.
They said that all the championships he had won last year were purely because the level of domestic races was too low. In short, after the first day of the Tour Down Under, opinions in China's road cycling viewing community regarding Huang Chong had already become divided, with everyone seeing things from their own perspective.
But soon afterward, when the event organizer's reporter interviewed the champion after the race and asked what the foundation of Sam Welsford's victory that day had been, Welsford did not hesitate in the slightest. Brimming with excitement, he answered directly into the main camera, "I believe the foundation of