After the breakaway group successfully got away on the Kyburg climb, their lead grew larger and larger.
Although the live cameras constantly switched back and forth among the key title favorites in the peloton, most of the coverage remained focused on the breakaway group.
The five riders worked together in the breakaway, moving forward in remarkable harmony. Their original one-and-a-half-minute advantage soon gradually stretched to over four minutes.
Looking at the real-time speed displayed on the system panel, Huang Chong did some quick calculations in his head and roughly worked out their actual distance apart. It was around three kilometers.
However, as the third climb, Suessblatz, arrived, two more riders attacked from the peloton.
They were Markus Pajur of the Estonia Team and Roberto Carlos Gonzalez of the Panama Team.
The two were relatively weaker riders, and the third climb included an extremely steep section with a maximum gradient of 18.9%. Though they had formed a breakaway together, they still could not catch the leading Foss group.
After clearing the third climb and riding roughly another twenty kilometers, the course descended onto flat ground. The peloton officially reached the start of the circuit, which was also where the finish arch for this stage stood.
From the 86-kilometer mark onward, only seven laps of rolling circuit roads remained. Each lap was 26.8 kilometers long and featured two difficult short, steep climbs.
As Huang Chong passed beneath the arch, he specifically glanced at the time-gap data provided by the motorcycle commissaires for the peloton and discovered that he was now 5 minutes and 40 seconds behind the Foss group.
With such a huge time gap, they were at least a full four kilometers behind in actual distance.
"187.6 kilometers remain. After the breakaway group was the first to cross the circuit's starting