In a road cycling sprint, ten meters passed in the blink of an eye.
Huang Chong, sprinting at full power, did not even have time to react before he passed Zhang Yi—who had deliberately squeezed the brakes to slow down—beneath the arch just before the finish line, crossing the line first.
Good thing they were on the same team. Otherwise, if the judges stationed at the finish line had seen it clearly, they might have thought it was some kind of cheating.
In fact, in road cycling races, when a domestique and team leader crossed the finish line together, the team leader would often hand the win to his domestique, provided the championship remained within their team.
For example, in 2023, Vingegaard directly gave the overall Vuelta a España title, one of the three Grand Tours, to his teammate Sepp Kuss. Likewise, at the 2025 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, Pogačar gave the championship to his domestique McNulty.
The reason was that every race was a chance for team leaders to contend for titles, while domestiques spent most of their time as the team's blue-collar workers.
Many domestiques might go their entire professional careers without getting more than a few opportunities to fight for an overall title for themselves.
Of course, the situation in professional teams was definitely different from Huang Chong's current circumstances. After he and Zhang Yi registered their race results with the officials, they relaxed beneath a sunshade and waited for the other riders to finish. Then Huang Chong asked Zhang Yi, "Captain, why did you deliberately give first place to me? It would have been the same if you won. We're on the same team anyway, and we swept the top two spots!"
Zhang Yi was also drinking water and resting. Hearing Huang Chong's question, he