Once the full rider lineup for the Vuelta a España had been finalized, Huang Chong took another look at all the teams competing in this edition.
Aside from the eighteen UCI WorldTour teams, just like at the Tour de France, the other four wildcard teams differed from the Tour's policy of allowing only the top four Pro teams in UCI points to participate.
Of the Vuelta's four wildcard teams, Israel–Premier Tech and the Lotto team were both also present, while the remaining two Pro teams were local Spanish professional teams.
They were Euskaltel–Euskadi and the Kern Pharma team (
Equipo KernPharma).
Huang Chong was fairly familiar with the former, but he truly knew little about the latter.
He only knew that, like the UCI WorldTour Jayco AlUla team, the Kern Pharma team also had its road bikes sponsored by Giant:
Propel Advanced SL.
Still, whether he knew this team or not hardly mattered.
After all, it was impossible for them to suddenly produce some elite climber at a Vuelta where neither Wen Bo was competing and directly blow him away, the overwhelming favorite for the overall title—
A few days early, he headed to the airport with the team and set off for the Vuelta's host city.
Like the Tour de France, the opening stages of this Vuelta began in a neighboring country outside Spain.
The first three stages of the Vuelta, however, were held very close to Spain, starting in Portugal's capital, Lisbon.
For Huang Chong, choosing Lisbon for the opening race day and team presentation had no impact beyond adding to the travel distance—it was more than two thousand kilometers from Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe's headquarters.
After all, Portugal was also a completely unfamiliar country to him.
Everything he knew about Portugal was based on two famous natives.
One was,