The race rolled on—
Huang Chong's mistaken breakaway had pulled all the title contenders into the lead group far ahead of schedule, throwing the entire race into complete chaos.
It was not just the coaching staffs of the major teams whose faces had darkened, wondering what the hell their riders were doing.
Even the managers of the three continental teams, who had remained at the venue throughout the past three days, were utterly bewildered.
In such a long stage, all the title contenders had broken away early. What kind of race was this?
Who raced like that?
This was far too unprofessional and way too aggressive.
Were these people really so confident that they could sustain high-power output for 140 kilometers all the way to the finish?
If they could not, were they not afraid of burning through all their energy too early and getting overturned by the riders in the second group—riders who were not as strong and originally belonged to teams not in contention for the title?
"If you ask me, for the highest-level road cycling event in the country to turn out like this is more than a little ridiculous."
"Yeah. Looking at it now, our country's professionalism in road cycling really is far behind that of Europe. They have not even ridden a quarter of the race, and all the key leaders are already joining breakaways. Isn't that just blatant nonsense?"
"I think the real culprit is Huang Chong of the Zhejiang Team. The guy is incredibly talented, but he clearly lacks experience in major races. He actually went after a teenage rider in a breakaway? I honestly do not even know what to say!"
"Probably just a young man with a temper. He could not stand seeing someone else ahead of him. Let's