August 20.
For all the Chinese athletes who had represented their country at this year's Paris Olympic Games, this was undoubtedly a very important day.
Because today, an awards ceremony for the Paris Olympic athletes would be held at the Great Hall of the People in the capital.
This was undoubtedly a tremendous regret.
But as a professional athlete, he had responsibilities of his own.
Within those responsibilities, he worked hard for his own career while continuing to cultivate China's presence in professional road cycling at the international level.
In short, for athletes still competing in professional events overseas, they could only choose between accepting recognition and continuing to race.
At 1:30 p.m. European time, as the Vuelta a España organizers' pre-race festivities came to an end, the first race day after returning to Spain officially began.
But clearly, at the Vuelta a España, breakaway riders were far less eager to fight for stage wins than they were at the Tour de France.
Five riders chose to break away today. While that was three more than in the previous two hilly stages, the overall strength of the breakaway was still quite ordinary.
Among them, Filippo Zana of Jayco AlUla was considered the strongest rider in the breakaway.
The other four were Armirail of Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale, who was relatively strong in time trials.
Sylvain Moniquet of the Lotto team.
Pablo Castrillo of the Kern Pharma team.
And Mikel Bizkarra of Euskaltel–Euskadi.
Without question, with a breakaway lineup like this—even Movistar Team's Lazkano had not joined it—it was clearly more about gaining exposure for their teams than genuinely contesting the stage victory.
Of course, once the race began, with their core leader already holding a considerable advantage, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe would not allow the breakaway to get too far ahead on a