Maintain a 25 KM/H Average Speed Through 10 Hairpin Turns

After Wang Qiang and the other three reached the summit, another ten-odd minutes passed before the three female riders who had fallen behind at the foot of the mountain finally conquered Prince Peak, the towering 1,557-meter mountain.

Yet looking down from the summit, eight riders could still be seen in scattered groups on the winding mountain road that twisted like a long snake, struggling their way toward the top.

Without question, they were members of the Headwind Cycling Team who had fallen behind even earlier.

Before the steep mountain, they had completely fragmented, unable to maintain a full formation as they had on the long, gradual slope at the start.

Huang Chong casually glanced over them before turning his attention back to the system text. Then he silently said in his mind:

"End climb!"

[Congratulations! You have completed 20 KM of continuous climbing. Based on the overall assessment, this climb has been rated at the highest difficulty level: HC climb.]

[You have exceeded the required mission distance. Reward doubled.]

[Reward obtained: 20 Basic Optimization Points, Heart-rate Threshold Enhancer x1]

"Sheesh—this climbing mission actually gave me 20 Optimization Points when it ended?"

Seeing the system prompt, Huang Chong thought the fierce wind at the summit had made him misread it. He immediately rubbed his eyes.

Then he realized the reward amount was indeed correct. It really was 20 points.

"I have to say, this reward is insanely good. Good thing I gritted my teeth and held on until the end.

Otherwise, if I'd ended the mission at the foot of the mountain, it would've been calculated at the difficulty of a Category 3 climb. That would've been a huge loss."

As for the Basic Optimization Point rewards currently set by the system, he knew every mission began with a reward of 2 points.

Doubled according to climb category, that meant a Category 4 climb gave 2 Basic Optimization Points, while a Category 3 climb gave 4.

An HC climb, meanwhile, was equivalent to five times the difficulty, naturally making it worth 10 points.

At the same time, he had doubled the final required distance, so he ultimately received 20 Basic Optimization Points.

Without any hesitation, he decisively said in his mind once more:

"Add all my Basic Optimization Points to my FTP power!"

[Points added successfully! Your FTP power has increased by 22 points. Current value: 224 W. Power-to-weight ratio increased to 3.11.]

Seeing that his power-to-weight ratio had broken 3.0 so quickly, Huang Chong felt a surge of satisfaction. He could not help thinking to himself:

Next time I ride with Du Wei, let's see what that kid has to say then.

As far as he knew, Du Wei's FTP was only around 180 W.

Although Du Wei could stand on the pedals and quickly increase his power output for a short time, sprinting itself was extremely draining.

If they did another circuit ride around West Lake, say four or five laps, then with his FTP 40 W higher than Du Wei's, he probably would not even need two laps to completely blow Du Wei apart. By then, Du Wei definitely would not even be able to catch his draft.

"220 W and a 3.11 power-to-weight ratio are still far from the entry standard for professional riders. Looks like I still need to train hard and complete more system missions!"

Even though he had raised his power by more than 60 W in just over three days—less than four—Huang Chong was still unsatisfied.

Because he wanted to become a professional rider, and his power needed to reach at least 300 W. That was assuming an ideal body weight of 60 KG.

But in truth, he knew perfectly well that if he really kept his weight at 60 KG, then even with 300 W legs, he would only be a pure climber, not a GC rider.

After all, in this era, Pogačar, that monster, had thoroughly overturned the definition of a GC rider in professional road cycling.

Not only did one need unrivaled climbing ability, one also needed elite sprinting ability.

That was why, even though Vingegaard could be called one of the two peerless talents alongside Pogačar at the Tour de France—

When it came to their respective historical results and personal achievements, Vingegaard was simply not comparable to Pogačar.

Before Huang Chong's rebirth, Pogačar had already surpassed 100 career wins, while Vingegaard had not even reached half that number.

And that was despite Vingegaard not competing in one-day races and focusing solely on multi-day race results.

One had to understand that winning one-day races—such as the five Monuments, the Ardennes Classics, and the Road World Championships—was far more difficult than winning a stage in a multi-day race.

So Huang Chong's ultimate goal still had to be modeled after an all-around GC rider like Pogačar, using the system to constantly optimize his weaknesses.

He even wanted the system to optimize his ITT ability to the point where he could surpass Ganna and Evenepoel, becoming a rider with no blind spots from any angle, utterly free of weaknesses.

"Damn, why does this Heart-rate Threshold Enhancer taste so fishy? It's like drinking fresh blood. This is even worse than the Ab Enhancer!"

After allocating his Optimization Points, Huang Chong drank the newly acquired potion as well.

The result was that he nearly spat it right back out.

The system's reward items all came in unbranded soft packets, looking exactly like the energy gels sold on the market.

So even if someone saw him taking the medicine, they would only think he was eating an energy gel and would not become any more suspicious.

However, compared with the training recovery energy gels and the Fast-acting Recovery Energy Bars, both of which had excellent fruit-like flavors, these auxiliary medicines used to strengthen his bodily functions tasted noticeably worse.

Of course, Huang Chong was not incapable of tolerating strange flavors.

As long as they could help optimize his weaknesses, even if the medicine stank, he would pinch his nose and force himself to swallow it.

After all, if he could not endure even this little hardship, how could he ever achieve anything great?

Just as he finished drinking the Heart-rate Threshold Enhancer and had rested at the summit for nearly half an hour, the sun had turned into a blazing furnace that seemed ready to roast everyone alive. At last, all the team members who had fallen behind earlier reached Prince Peak.

Over merely a few dozen kilometers of climbing, they had fallen nearly half an hour behind one another. The difference in ability that climbing could reveal between riders was plainly enormous.

Thus, in professional road cycling, the saying that those who could climb ruled the world might not be absolute, but it was certainly no empty claim.

At the very least, for the Tour de France, the highest honor in road cycling, no rider who could not conquer the high mountains could possibly win the championship.

"All right. Since everyone has reached the summit, we'll continue.

From Prince Peak onward, it'll be downhill all the way until we return to Lin'an District, and there won't be many climbs left.

Even if there are, they'll just be very short, gentle rises. Everyone, make sure you stay with the formation.

And one more thing: safety comes first on the descent. Do not chase the limit when cornering."

After Zhang Yi finished speaking, he organized all the riders to get back on their bikes and begin descending the mountain.

On the return journey, however, Huang Chong had no intention of staying at the very back of the group again.

He had already tested his true level during the first half of the ride. Not only was he not the weakest, he was actually one of the riders with the best overall ability.

So he barely gave it any thought before deciding to ride behind Wang Qiang and the others.

But just as he followed the group down the mountain, system text quietly appeared before his eyes once more:

[Detected that the host is on a long descent. Please maintain an average speed of at least 25 KM/H and safely pass through at least 10 hairpin turns.]