Did This Guy Inject Steroids into His Thighs?

The system had classified the group ride organized by Zhou Ming as the first race of Huang Chong's cycling career, which surprised him quite a bit.

But thinking about how difficult the previous detection missions had been, he could understand. The system was probably afraid that if he went straight into an official amateur race, it might take him a long time to get his first win?

In any case, since the system had issued the mission, even if not for Zhou Ming's championship prize money, he had to give it everything he had.

Fifteen points of basic optimization, plus a daily training gift pack whose contents were unknown but which carried the name "gift pack"—that was even more tempting than 28,888.

After all, the energy bars and energy gels the system had rewarded before were all good stuff that simply couldn't be bought on the market.

And the energy gels available on the market cost at least ten-something yuan apiece.

If he had to spend money on supplements every day to train, the cost was pretty high for him right now.

"Old Du, I'll break the wind for you. Just stay on my wheel!"

Less than 3 KM into the race, they reached the first climb.

Du Wei had talked big before the race, but when faced with the climb, his face turned liver-purple as the intensity shot straight to the max.

Zhou Ming had clearly set this route up to mess with people, deliberately choosing the section with the most climbs.

Normally, Around Qiandao Lake was primarily made up of broad flat roads. The full route was 137 KM long and had only six short climbs in total.

The latter five climbs were all packed into a mere 50 KM stretch, from 63 KM to 113 KM of the official route.

Yet Zhou Ming had singled out those 50 KM and chosen them as today's race course.

The hardest section was the third climb of the new route, a long, gradual ascent formed by three consecutive climbs. He had also placed the finish line at the summit of the final climb.

So in a sense, Zhou Ming had completely turned this Around Qiandao Lake half-race from an official course dominated by flat roads into a rolling, lightly mountainous stage.

To UCI WorldTour riders, this level of difficulty probably wasn't even enough to make them stop for a drink. A few hard pedal strokes and they could roll right over it.

But for an amateur like Du Wei, who wasn't even diligent with his daily training, after finishing the first small climb—from 157 meters to 189 meters in elevation, with a gradient of only around 2 percent—his heart rate had already surged into Zone 4 threshold, and he was panting heavily.

"Damn it, Zhou is definitely screwing with me on purpose.

We've only been riding for a few minutes, and there's already a climb.

And they pushed the average speed to over 30 right from the start. Are they trying to blow me up from the very beginning?!"

After Huang Chong led him over the first climb and they began descending, Du Wei finally got a chance to catch his breath.

But that first short climb alone had put them dozens of meters behind Zhou Ming's five-man riding group.

That was only because Huang Chong had deliberately slowed his pace to match Du Wei's power output, breaking the wind for him and waiting for him.

Otherwise, he would have had to start out riding in the same group as those rich guys at the back, who had no competitive spirit whatsoever and had come to Qiandao Lake purely to enjoy the scenery.

Huang Chong didn't know what to say. He was leading Du Wei at an average speed of 32 KM/H and felt no pressure at all.

That was because his FTP had now reached nearly 250W.

Riding with less than 200W was basically a Zone 1 warm-up for him.

He glanced at his system bike computer and saw that his heart rate was only around 120, truly somewhere between Zone 1 and Zone 2.

It was clear from this just how enormous the gap between his current strength and Du Wei's had become.

Then, shortly after the descent began, the second climbing point arrived.

The ascent was still very easy this time, rising from 168 meters to 195 meters, with a gradient of around 3 percent.

Yet this short climbing stretch of less than a hundred meters made Du Wei suffer immensely.

Huang Chong even had to reduce their average speed below 20 just to keep his good friend from being dropped.

Meanwhile, Zhou Ming's riding group maintained a very steady pace, leading their main man all the way up at an average climbing speed of over 20. In the blink of an eye, they had opened up nearly 100M on them.

"We're done for. Zhou Ming must've been secretly training extra. Old Huang, I'm in bad form today. I don't think I can catch them!"

Watching his archrival ride farther and farther away, Du Wei finally made it over the second short climb after gritting his teeth, then followed Huang Chong downhill in hopes of closing the gap to Zhou Ming's group. Panic began to rise in his heart.

It was all because he had stayed up too late playing games lately and trained too little—

See? The moment the intensity went up, it felt like his heart and lungs were about to explode.

Huang Chong was helpless about it too. By breaking the wind and leading Du Wei, he had already saved the latter a huge amount of energy and done everything he could.

Especially since the wind had been fairly strong that morning. If Du Wei hadn't been tucked behind him, Zhou Ming would probably have disappeared from sight by now.

"What should we do? I can raise the average speed and catch them, but then I'll have to increase my power, and you won't be able to keep up.

"And the three consecutive climbs are next. We have to pass through Ganwu Village, Xie Family Village, and Chen Family Village.

"Especially that gradual climb in Xie Family Village—it's 2 KM long, with a maximum gradient of 5 percent. If I push too hard now, you'll definitely be lying on the ground before you finish the three climbs!"

Du Wei was miserable. He had never been good at climbing, and he had also been far too indulgent with food and drink. His weight was now close to 80 KG.

He could still have some fun on flat roads and descents, but when it came to climbs, every slope was a death sentence.

So, watching Zhou Ming's group pull farther and farther away, he weighed his options in his heart, gritted his teeth, and gave up on preserving his dignity.

Otherwise, if this kept up, Huang Chong would be completely dropped too, and then they would lose everything.

So he stopped hesitating and made his decision on the spot.

"Old Huang, don't worry about me. Go solo and chase Zhou Ming's group.

"If they get any farther away and we lose sight of them completely, it'll be hard to catch them.

"And this race is only 50 KM in total. We haven't even covered half of it yet. If you push a little, you should be able to catch them.

"My dignity is in your hands, brother. You have to save my last shred of pride—"

Hearing Du Wei's defeatist words, Huang Chong didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The guy was good in every way except that sometimes he cared too much about saving face and made himself suffer for it.

See? The fiercer he had talked before the race, the more miserable he looked during it.

Of course, Du Wei really had been set up by Zhou Ming. Knowing full well that Du Wei was bad at climbing, he had deliberately picked out the hardest 50 KM.

"Fine, then I'll go chase them. Slow down and take it easy.

"Once you get through Ganwu Village, the first of the three consecutive climbs, there should be a halfway aid station.

"You can grab a Mizone, Gatorade, or some other sports drink to replenish your energy.

"I'm going ahead. I'll wait for you at the finish!"

"Fine, go! You have to win, Old Huang! Otherwise, Zhou Ming's going to be riding all over us and taking a dump on our heads from now on!!!"

Du Wei shouted. Huang Chong immediately shifted to a smaller cog, then used the big chainring to maintain a cadence above 90, instantly raising his average speed to 40 KM/H.

Du Wei, who had been following behind and had only just been dropped, watched Huang Chong finally let loose and ride at full force. Huang Chong shot away like a rocket and vanished into the distance in an instant, leaving him completely dumbfounded.

"Holy shit, did this guy inject steroids into his thighs?

"How did he get this much stronger after only ten days without riding together?

"What's his average speed supposed to be?

"40 KM/H?"