They were trying to capitalize on every minor incident on the course to gain a greater advantage for Pogačar.
The unluckiest was the Ineos rider, Pidcock. He had just managed to get past an accident, only to suffer a mechanical failure at the 87-kilometer mark.
He ended up falling back to the third group, more than 20 seconds behind the second group containing van der Poel, who was furiously chasing Huang Chong and the others.
Huang Chong glanced to the side. After the Wanna Mountain climb, a race official on a motorcycle held up a small blackboard displaying the real-time gap. He saw that his lead group had pulled away from the second group, which contained his other teammates and van der Poel, by a full minute.
It was only then that he fully understood how prescient Aldag had been the day before when he had stressed that Huang Chong must not have any accidents or make any mistakes.
