Most new riders on an Intercontinental Team sign one-year contracts for their first deal, and Huang Chong was no exception.

However, his decision not to sign a long-term contract wasn’t because the team feared his performance would be unstable and risky, but because it was his own choice.

A short-term contract certainly offered more freedom.

Besides, he was confident in his abilities, had higher career ambitions, and had no intention of signing a long-term contract with an Intercontinental Team right out of the gate, only to get complacent.

Even if his skill level didn’t reach World Tour Level by the end of the year, he was confident he could re-sign with an Intercontinental Team next year.

That wouldn’t be a problem.

As long as his performance didn’t significantly decline, he could basically dominate the domestic league at his current level.

Training time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was mid-March.

There was only one day left before the start of the first stop of the domestic league: the Mang City Station in Yunnan.

After nearly two and a half months of training camp, Huang Chong’s FTP Power had increased by about 10 watts, now sitting at 365W.

Just as he had expected, when relying on natural improvement through regular training, the higher his skill level got, the slower his progress became.

Don’t be fooled by how small those 10 watts seem; it was an achievement he’d only reached by furiously training on HC Level climbs every day during his two and a half months of training camp in Mang City.

If he had only trained on flat roads, even if he did 300km of Zone 2 cardio every day, he probably wouldn’t have been able to increase his FTP Power by 10 watts in that time frame.

The ultimate reason was that China’s road infrastructure, built to meet national standards, naturally resulted in a lower cycling difficulty that couldn’t compare to the courses in Europe.

After all, it was nearly impossible to find a road in China with a maximum gradient steeper than 15%.

In the World Tour, however, it was common to see incredibly steep climbs with maximum gradients of 17%, 18%, or even exceeding 20%.

To truly reach the level of a top-tier GC rider among World Tour Cyclists, it was impossible without undergoing the brutal baptism of these kinds of stages.

Besides, power numbers were ultimately just static figures. A rider’s ability to adapt on the spot, their choice of when to attack, and so on, were all very important.

Even things like how to receive supplies from the team more effectively, or how to fight for position within the main group during a turn, all needed to be improved through actual race experience.

Huang Chong knew very well that if he wanted to reach the highest peak, he still had a very, very long road to ride.

"The domestic league starts tomorrow. After two and a half months of training camp, everyone’s skill level has generally improved, which is great. But none of you can let your guard down, because the other riders who’ve been training here in Mang City have surely improved as well."

Coach Li continued, laying out the team’s tactical plan before the race:

"As this is the first station of the 2023 season, the first thing we need to be mindful of is not to get too excited right at the start and go showing off your strength."

"All of you need to stay in the main group at first to get used to the race rhythm and get a feel for the competition."

"For our lineup in this race, our team will be fielding six domestic riders."

"In addition to Huang Chong and Xiaoma, we also have Gao Yongbing, Guo Xin, Hou Dongyi, and Peng Yuantang from Taiwan."

Huang Chong wasn’t surprised by this lineup.

This year, although the cycling association had made an exception and allowed riders from Intercontinental Teams outside the state sports system to compete, they still hadn’t approved participation for the foreign riders on those teams.

So the core contenders were still the top-tier riders from various provinces, cities, and the Hong Kong and Macau teams.

Of course, a few of the domestic Intercontinental Teams were composed of provincial team members, so they couldn’t be considered riders from outside the system.

Teams like the Hainan Wuzishan 1867 Continental Team, the Qinghai Tianyoude Continental Team, and the Henan BDR-Blueprint Continental Team were all composed purely of provincial team members.

In short, all of the top domestic riders had shown up for this year’s league.

The Longjiang Team was still using the same lineup from last year’s National Championships and remained the biggest favorite to win among all the teams.

Their team was stacked with top riders, and that was no empty boast.

And besides the Longjiang Team riders, others to watch out for—like Xue Ming from the Tianjin Team and Miao Chengshuo from Shandong, who hadn’t participated in last year’s National Championships—had also come to compete in the domestic league this year.

These were all truly top-tier riders, and Huang Chong had already learned about them in advance through Chen Junyi’s pre-race scouting reports.

It was safe to say that winning the league would be much more difficult for him than winning last year’s National Championships.

"The first race day is a city circuit race. The route was announced a while ago. The start and finish lines are both at Mang City Square."

"The course passes through Mang City Avenue, Menghuan Road, Golden Peacock Avenue, and Tour of City East Road."

"You’ll need to ride 8 laps around the Peacock Lake scenic area. Each lap is 9.5km. Then you’ll ride back to Mang City Square for a flat-road sprint finish. The total course length is 92.5km."

"Our team has test-ridden the course many times, but likewise, the riders from other teams are surely just as familiar with it."

"Overall, this stage is of average difficulty. The tough parts are all concentrated in the eight laps around Peacock Lake. There are a lot of hairpin turns over there, plus continuous rolling hills."

"But as long as you get through those eight laps around the lake, the finish will definitely be a flat-road sprint."

"So for the first race day, our team will be centered around Xiaoma. He’s our sprinter."

"The other five of you must ensure that during the attacks and pulls on the Peacock Lake laps, someone is always leading out for Xiaoma, making sure he gets into the final sprint group."

"Also, based on my understanding of the other teams’ core riders, the ones we need to pay special attention to, aside from the Longjiang Team, are Wang Ruidong and Xue Ming from the Tianjin Team, Liu Chenglu from the Jiangsu Team, and Yue Hao from the Henan Badirui Team, among others."