After receiving Aldag's tactical instructions, Huang Chong silently stayed in the peloton and made no further moves, focusing entirely on conserving his energy throughout the stage.
In a Grand Tour, maintaining a steady aerobic pace was equivalent to training through racing. Although it meant he could not contend for stage victories, it was far from fruitless for a rider.
After all, long-distance aerobic training was actually the type of training professional road cyclists did most often.
Only by constantly piling on the kilometers could riders balance the energy within their bodies to the greatest extent.
So Huang Chong let the breakaway riders battle one another up ahead.
In the end, after Stage 12 concluded, the stage win was somewhat unexpectedly claimed by Castrillo of the wildcard Pro team Kern Pharma team.
For Huang Chong, even if he had managed to snatch today's stage victory, it would not have brought him much additional benefit.
It would merely have added another entry to his record of Grand Tour stage wins.
People would no longer have much of a reaction to him winning an individual stage.
But for Castrillo, who was still riding for a Pro team, grinding out a breakaway victory against riders from eighteen UCI WorldTour teams carried extraordinary significance and value.
It could absolutely be considered his breakout moment.
At the same time, it was equivalent to securing himself an early ticket into a UCI WorldTour team for the following year.
His personal market value would certainly soar several times over as well.
This had thoroughly opened a bright new window in his professional road cycling career.
Of course, all of this was inseparable from general classification riders like Huang Chong deliberately letting the breakaway take these stages in the Grand Tour.
However, what neither Huang Chong nor the entire