Back in the game, I'm still the big devil

The temperature on this day was as high as 27 degrees Celsius-this is already a rare "high temperature" in the Alps in summer.

And the sunny weather makes the scenery in this area even more pleasant.

The white clouds are like cotton candy, floating one by one in the blue sky; the stream is jubilantly flowing and rolling up the waves beside the road, and the crisp sound of cow bells can be heard from time to time in the green pasture.

Locals spelled out the "Tour de France" logo in various ways on the ground, waiting for the helicopter to film from above, bringing their love for their hometown to everyone watching the live broadcast of the event around the world.

At the beginning of the race, Roy was like a fish swimming right in front of the entire team.

He didn't rush out as soon as the race started like in the first stage.

Today, he is not an impatient "rabbit".

He is watching patiently—

This stage is the field given to the "rabbits" by God: the whole race has complex terrain and is long enough.

This means: as long as the "rabbits" charge far enough, the main group will not be able to catch up with them.

This kind of stage gives the rabbit a great chance to win the championship.

But what Roy wants is not only to win the stage championship, but also to recover the time lost when he crashed with Nick last time.

He wants to catch up with the yellow jersey in the overall score - the Renault team should not have noticed his intention at all, so today is the best opportunity.

There are many "rabbits" from various teams who think similarly to him.

Everyone, look at me, and I look at you, for a while, no one rushed out first.

Unexpectedly, Arthur moved first.

Under the scorching sun, his white figure was like a beam of dazzling light.

When Arthur rushed out, Roy accurately captured the moment he accelerated, and the rhythm immediately accelerated under his feet.

There seemed to be a sound of "hula la", and a dozen "rabbits" rushed out from the front of the main group, all of them followed closely behind Arthur.

Roy chuckled inwardly: The commentator in charge of the broadcast must be exclaiming again at this time—the white shirt actually took the lead as a "rabbit" and rushed to the front?

Thinking of the agreement with Arthur last night, Roy immediately accelerated, gradually surpassing Arthur by half the body, allowing Arthur to relax a little under the influence of the airflow of his body.

Eventually the idlers will retreat.

This contest with a long mileage will be a duel between him and Arthur.

Before that, both he and Arthur needed to help each other preserve their strength.So at this moment, they need to have enough tacit understanding.

Roy's thoughts couldn't help but go back to the past——

There was actually a tacit understanding between him and Arthur in his previous life.This kind of tacit understanding has been cultivated since they were both "rabbits" in the team.

But they had never known each other as well as they did now, and they didn't even know each other very well.

When they each became famous and faced each other again, this tacit understanding has given way to the competition between the teams. They each have a group of teammates to support and protect them, and they will only compete in skills and courage when they meet on narrow roads.

Unlike today, they only have each other who can support each other.

At the end of the game, this mutual support can quickly transform into direct mutual competition.

They will fight to the death immediately, turn their faces and deny anyone, after all, there will always be only one winner.

Roy thought to himself: He actually... likes this kind of game a little bit.

It didn't take long for Arthur to accelerate past Roy again.Arthur never took advantage of others in this arrangement of maintaining his strength.

"Hey--"

Roy got bored and greeted Arthur.

He kind of wants to chat.

More than 200 kilometers, more than 5 hours of driving, so boring?joke.

But when Arthur passed by Roy, he didn't even look at Roy.Roy saw from the side that the corners of his mouth were tightly pursed, and the lines of his face were extremely solemn.As if he had already made up his mind, today he will try to stay focused: from the start to the finish.

"Are you so serious?"

Roy couldn't help but be surprised.

He himself is a genius in riding, and he treats riding like a god of learning. He is usually idle and doesn't even do his homework, and he is still the first in all subjects when it comes to exams.

But Arthur seems to be a top student, usually very hardworking, takes every homework seriously, and is extremely strict with himself.

The opposite personalities of the two may be the reason why they failed to be friends in the previous life—Roy felt that he had finally figured it out.

At this time, they had reached the vicinity of the first supply point.

The "rabbits" do not have teammates to supply supplies, they must get supplies from their own team or the logistics staff arranged by the organizer.

The sun is hot today, and it is most important to prepare enough water.

Roy quickly removed the empty water bottle from the frame, remembering Nick’s example, quickly threw the bottle far away from the road, then took the water bottle full of water from the organizer’s logistics, and placed it on the on the frame.

He looked up just in time to see Arthur looking at him—

Roy froze for a while before realizing that Arthur was checking to see if he had gotten enough water.If Roy can't get the proper supplies, he will get an extra bottle for Roy.The rich and powerful "Baolai" should not be stingy with a bottle of water.

Roy immediately smiled and nodded to Arthur. He has always been like this: when people treat him well, he will smile more and more.

Unexpectedly, Arthur acted as if he hadn't seen his smiling face, tidied up a bit, and immediately concentrated on moving forward.

When the "rabbits" rode more than 120 kilometers, the communication motorcycle of the event organizer drove towards the rabbit team, and the communicator sitting on the back seat of the motorcycle held up a small blackboard to them, with a time written in chalk on it: "9' twenty four"".

This means that the Rabbit team has led the main group by more than 9 points.

The gap between Roy and the yellow jersey has been narrowed to about 8 minutes.

The main group must be unable to sit still, and will definitely make efforts to catch up in the second half.

Roy and Arthur looked at each other, the tacit understanding between them was the same as that of the first stage, there was no need to exchange views, and the two started to accelerate at the same time.

This acceleration immediately disrupted the rhythm of the other "rabbits".About 30 seconds later, Roy and Arthur form a separate "rabbit" team.They rushed to the front and maintained a constant speed, like two machines that never stopped.

"Well done, Roy!"

The assistant coach's wild shouts came from the headset.Roy had to turn the earphones a little farther away.

"That's right, Roy, keep this speed, you can catch up for about 6 minutes when you cross the finish line." Victor was much calmer.

Can only catch back about 6 minutes?

Roy couldn't help raising the corner of his mouth.

You must know that he is the "big devil" who will monopolize the yellow jersey of the Tour de France ten years later. The one next to him is the perennial owner of the Spaghetti jersey and the red jersey of the Tour de France.Will the two of them team up and lose their 9-point lead?

"Roy!" Victor hadn't finished speaking.

"Don't force yourself near the finish line!"

"Today's section of crossing the line is very, very difficult. For the sake of future stages, you must take it easy in the last two kilometers of crossing the line and don't be willful."

"I understand." Roy made it clear.

He knew what Victor was referring to - the end of the stage was a difficulty in itself: the finish line was set at the end of a gravel road about 4 kilometers long.

Although Roy's hamstring is not seriously injured, he still has a slight injury.Had he pushed hard at the end of the stage, the gravel uphill would have given him a painful sleepless night: his thigh muscles would be so sore that he couldn't sleep all night, and his hamstring Nearby injuries may in turn affect tomorrow's game.

Roy's goal is to recover the lost yellow jersey, not the champion of this stage-so Victor reminded him: things have priorities, even if he loses the stage championship, at least he has recovered enough as planned time.

Roy didn't care: he had a lot of experience in winning the championship.

Besides, the last time he "singled out" Arthur, Roy still won.

In his opinion: he is also capable of capturing the champion of this stage.

The development of the race was very close to what Roy expected. When Roy and Arthur reached the last 10 kilometers, they were still ahead of the main group by about 8 minutes.

Now it seems that no matter how the main group speeds up, they can't help these two "rabbits".

The only suspense in this stage is: how much Roy can recover the total score, and, Roy or Arthur, who will be the champion of this stage.

The end point after the uphill gravel road is located in a small town called Puati.

The center of the city is completely in the architectural style of the Middle Ages: uneven stone roads, churches built from huge sandstone blocks, the town hall...

In order to welcome the Tour de France players, a huge yellow "jersey jersey" with the words "I love the Tour de France" was hung on the outer wall of the town hall, covering the entire facade of the town hall. noodle.

Enthusiastic citizens along the road welcomed the first runners who arrived near the finish line with flowers and cheers.

But both Roy and Arthur are completely indifferent to these "disturbances", and they have already begun to prepare for the final sprint——

It looked like a repeat of Stage 1: but both Roy and Arthur knew that this was a completely different situation from Stage 1.

Both of them have shouldered more responsibilities, and their goals are no longer so pure-both are not just for the momentary desire to win.

But the tactics of crossing the line at any finish point are always the same: they will bite each other as in the first stage, and then wait, judge, and launch.

Roy predicted that the final sprint stage of the two of them would be 300-500 meters before the finish line.

Before that, Roy and Arthur will have a period of game and suspicion with each other, "see who moves first".

Unexpectedly, they had just crossed the two-kilometer mark from the finish line when Arthur suddenly started to accelerate.

This acceleration caught Roy off guard - it was too early!

Roy tried to pedal at Arthur's frequency, but the bumpy gravel road and the nearly 8% gradient put a lot of pressure on his legs.The injury on the right leg was aching.

He couldn't keep up with Arthur's rhythm at all.

Roy gritted his teeth: This Arthur, what the hell is going crazy?Didn't he know that running the remaining two kilometers at this pace would give him muscle soreness and insomnia all night long?

This guy...wouldn't he be riding tomorrow?

The audience watching the battle was stimulated by Arthur's sudden sprint, and began to cheer excitedly.

But Roy watched helplessly as the distance between Arthur and him widened little by little; he tried his best, but he couldn't narrow the gap.

Arthur's abnormal state from last night to today flashed quickly in his mind:

Attempted smoking behavior, "starlight" in the eyes under the night;

Silent seriousness, concentration, and determination—

Roy has enough reasons to believe that this game must have an unusual meaning for Arthur, or that there is something extremely important at the end that Arthur is struggling to pursue.

Roy also wanted to catch up.

But this desperate final sprint caused him excruciating pain.

He couldn't help shouting angrily behind Arthur:

"are you crazy!"