Chapter 18 - The Race.
Yang Dao rode his bike to catch up with the cyclists in front of him. Then he did not rush to pass them all instantly. He was not that over-powered. Plus, the group of people in front of him were all professionals. Yang Dao positioned himself behind them. He calmly observed their movements, adjusted his body frame, matched their cadence and breathing. After, a few seconds, when Yang Dao got used to the rhythm of these people, he increased his pace.
He has been riding as a part of beeline formation to avoid the air, but now he came to the side and pushed forward. His pace was constantly increasing and the guys from the cyclist group noticed his pace. Yang Dao passed one person at a time. He was smiling as he did it. This was his first race, after all. Soon he was neck to neck with the leader of the Cyclist group.
The boy was a couple of years older than Yang Dao and as he noticed Yang Dao’s pace he nodded and spoke, “Freshmen?” he spoke as he rode the bike at a high speed. His sudden words surprised Yang Dao. He was not experienced enough to talk and ride at the same time at such a high speed. Fearing that his breathing rhythm would disrupt, he nodded in reply.
The leader of the group said, “Are you a road racer?”
Yang Dao shook his head while his eyes were stuck to the road in front. The other guy glanced at Yang Dao’s posture, breathing, cadence and rhythm. He also noticed that Yang Dao was wearing casual clothes and not racing attire. He glanced at the bike Yang Dao was riding. For a moment he froze, then he shook his head. He did not dare to believe that this rookie was riding on ‘Silence’. He was aware of the world’s most famous road racer being sold, but he did not believe that it would appear in front of him so soon.
The cyclist group increased the pace but Yang Dao was still neck to neck with the leader and only one kilometer of the track was left before they would reach the college back entrance. Yang Dao increased his pace. The leader spoke, “Hey, rookie, want to race to the entrance? The one reaches first treats the other with breakfast?”
Yang Dao nodded after he heard this. The whole group underestimated him and smiled. They all shook their heads. The captain would usually lure the new racers for a race and then ask them to pay for the breakfast. Almost all of them had faced it. The captain was a third-year student, while half of them were second-year students. The cyclist group had six people, three senior students, and three second years. This year first-grade team members have not yet been recruited. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
The rest of the group slowed down their pace and they would only follow as the captain raced the rookie for a kilometer. They all have just returned from the vacation and were only running a normal practice lap around the city. Also, the captain was enough to deal with this guy, they thought.
Yang Dao kept following the pace of the captain as the other guy sped up and broke through from the group. The two people kept pedaling. One running while the other chased. Yang Dao had never been through such a competition. His body was performing at its peak and his body seemed to improve at a terrifying rate. With every pedal, he was growing. Soon he was not following the leader but came neck to neck with him. Yang Dao exhaled heavily and shifted the front gear of his bike. The bike shifted to the 4th front gear. He was riding with the 46th combination of gears. The other guy did not notice that Yang Dao shifted the front gear as Yang Dao was on his left-hand side and the controls for the front gears were also on the left side.
Yang Dao’s pace kicked off like a rocket. With every pedal, he pulled a distance of at least half a meter between him and the leader. The other party was dumbfounded. He did not waste time thinking about the reason behind what just happened. He quickly shifted his gear and caught up to Yang Dao.
The team behind saw this and one rider exclaimed, “Did I just saw that newbie shift the front gear?”
The other guy spoke, “FUCK, that newbie is riding on ‘Silence’. Shit, god this is unfair.”
The others all groaned. They did not blame Yang Dao for his better bike, because a bike is also a part of your strength. They all learned this over the times as they competed. Many riders had better bikes than them, but they never gave up. It may sound like having a 4th front gear is a good thing, but the strength one needed to pull a bike in this gear is not a joke. It will make you wish to forget how to ride a bike. Any normal human would have stopped.
But Yang Dao was not a normal human. He had a physique superior to others, and the innate elemental boost strengthened him. So he could pull the bike at this speed and gear combo. The distance between the two of them did not lessen on the contrary when Yang Dao was in lead with ten meters he stopped speeding up and maintained the pace. He did this to save himself some strength for the next 500 meters. The leader tried to catch up but then he also maintained his pace to regain some of his energy to make a dash when there is only 100 meters are left.