He knew full well that once Gelber broke away, he'd never be able to catch him.
Yevgeniy would surely control the pace and hold him back, allowing his teammate to safely break away and claim the championship.
And once Gelber won the championship, he would be left to contend with Yevgeniy for second place.
In the eyes of the Kazakhstan riders, a sprint between them was a 50-50 toss-up.
And Huang Chong saw it the same way.
He couldn't guarantee he could beat Yevgeniy—who wasn't a specialist sprinter—one hundred percent of the time.
After all, the man was an ITT champion and a World Tour Cyclist. 'Who knows if he was hiding his true strength during the previous attacks?'
That's how sprints were. No one knew the outcome until the very last moment.
After Huang Chong began his pursuit, he could clearly feel that his own maximum power output was no match for Gelber's.
So even though he responded, Gelber immediately pulled away, opening up a gap.
