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

In this Tour de France, 37 players withdrew due to various reasons, including Nick and Arthur.

The remaining 129 players are ranked according to their total scores, starting from low to high.

Roy played the game in the waiting area for a long time, when he looked up by chance, he yelled in surprise.

George had been pedaling on the fitness machine before, and now he was also frowning. He walked to the TV screen in the waiting area and stared at the camera at the crossing line.

Mikel Petersen of Continental Racing just crossed the finish line.

The real-time timing shows that Mikel's finishing time is the shortest among the players who have completed it—a lot better than the previous best result.

A big team like Renault must have studied all its opponents in detail before the race, and has predicted the general result of the time trial.

Unexpectedly, a Cheng Yaojin suddenly came out and crossed the finish line with an excellent record that no one expected.

Georges stared sullenly at the screen, looking as though Renault's plans had all been thrown into disarray.

On the other hand, Roy laughed and yelled, clapped vigorously, and looked at the screen: "Rice" with a shy face was being welcomed into the tent surrounded by cameras.

There is a tradition in time trial broadcasts: the driver who finishes the race and ranks first is invited to watch the rest of the race in front of the camera until someone surpasses their time; the driver with a higher time will take their place - and so on The cycle repeats until the game is completely over.

At that time, the one who stays in front of the camera will naturally be the final winner.

Mikel is just a little-known driver of the Continental Team. He has never won a stage championship before, and he has no chance to lead the jersey. Where has he enjoyed such treatment?

Therefore, the young man who sat in front of the camera for the first time was extremely cramped. He didn't even know where to put his hands, kept scratching his head, and didn't know where to look with his eyes.

A reporter asked Mikel behind the camera, asking his opinion: Who will be the final champion today.

Mikel did not hesitate: I will answer this question!

Facing the camera, he blurted out: "Roy, the champion will definitely be Roy!"

George chuckled, walked away with folded arms, and deliberately dropped a sentence when passing Roy:

"So what if it's the stage champion? Don't forget the 57-second gap."

What George means: Even if Roy wins the stage championship today, as long as the gap between George and Roy does not widen to more than 57 seconds, the yellow jersey will still belong to George.

Last night, the Renault team got Roy's car scouting report before he joined the Continental team, and used big data to analyze all his data in this race, and concluded that Roy's overall ability is comparable to that of George. In the competition, the results of these two should be evenly matched.

Roy also folded his arms at this moment, looking at his teammates on the screen, he couldn't help smiling.

He knew that there was a vague problem with George's mentality now:

George has already thought of the possibility of "losing";

George pinned all his hopes on that 57-second advantage.

Since ancient times, the brave wins when we meet on a narrow road. Since George has already thought of "losing" before setting off, he has already lost half of the battle.

When there were more than 20 drivers left in the waiting area, Roy lazily put down the game console in his hand, and pedaled on the fitness machine for a while as a warm-up.

He was not too serious during the warm-up, stopping from time to time to hold up his phone to take a selfie, say hello to the drivers who set off for the race, and so on.

Seeing Roy behave so casually, George couldn't help muttering in his heart: Why isn't this man nervous? ——Could it be that he really has a way to win?

After another half an hour, Roy finally got up and began to check all his time trial equipment:

He still wears a polka-dot jersey with red dots on a white background, but the helmet on his head is a special drop-shaped helmet-this helmet is specially designed to help the rider reduce drag when riding at high speed .

The car under his seat has also been modified today. There is an extra bracket on the faucet for the driver to rest his elbows on the bracket.

This means that the drivers hardly use the faucet during the time trial, and use their elbows and core strength to control the stability and direction of the vehicle.

In a time trial, it's all about speed.

Without the influence of teammates and opponents, the drivers will concentrate on pursuing the ultimate speed.

Roy gets a feel for his car: there's nothing wrong with it.

The team's mechanics and logistics team adjusted his vehicle to his favorite and most used state.

So Roy walked towards the starting point, and before leaving, he waved at George carelessly.

"Good luck, George!"

George nodded and was about to reply, but Roy added another sentence: "Don't cry when you reach the end."

George: ...? !

He immediately realized: This is psychological warfare, psychological warfare, psychological warfare, ignore it!

But I saw Roy pedaling his racing car lazily, slowly towards the starting point - there was no sign of tension.

Georgeton felt a puff of anger in his chest.

As the main general, he has a detached position in the team. Not only his teammates, but even the head coach dare not say anything to him.

Who would have thought that meeting someone like Roy today would not be polite at all.

But George had to hold back his anger so as not to affect the next game.

"If you can't wear the yellow shirt then, don't cry."

George didn't hold back, and replied for the first time.

I saw Roy waving in the distance: "Don't worry, I won't!"

I don't know if he said he won't "cry his nose" or "can't wear a yellow shirt".

After 10 minutes, Roy set off.

The timing referee gestured beside him: three, two, one - let's go!

Roy kicked lightly, and his car slipped gently from the starting block to the flat ground, starting the flat ground part of the time trial.

This section of the track was originally a highway in the city. Today, it has changed from the busy traffic in the past, and it has become empty—all the spectators are standing in the designated area to watch the game. They cannot and dare not enter the track. It will never affect the high-speed riding. Row of riders.

Once Roy's car is on the track, it means that the "final battle" of this Tour de France for the yellow jersey has officially kicked off.

Two minutes later, George started behind Roy.

George, who was wearing a yellow jersey, wore a golden drop-shaped helmet, and under his seat was a special racing car for the flat stage.

In the eyes of the audience, George is a chaser, and he has to work hard to shorten the physical gap with Roy.

But at the bottom of the screen of the TV broadcast, the broadcast agency also specially released a small line of numbers-this is the "real-time" score gap between Roy and George.

The starting gap is naturally 57 seconds.

But as the game progressed, that gap miraculously began to close.

56 second, 55 seconds, 54 seconds...

In the studio at the finish line, Mikel is still sitting in front of the camera lens until now—as Roy predicted earlier, Rice’s time trial results are amazing, and no one has surpassed him for so long.

Seeing that the time difference between Roy and George was shrinking, Mikel jumped up happily with his hands up.

However, no one in the studio paid any attention to him, and everyone was engrossed in watching the decisive battle between Roy and George.

Jacques Durand, who was in charge of commentary for the Tour de France, also came to the scene today.

Hearing Mikel's yell, Jacques held up the microphone helplessly and explained to the TV audience:

"In fact, the 'real-time' data shown to you by the broadcasting agency is an estimated result. It does not directly represent the total score gap between Roy and George. After all, they did not start at the same time..."

"However, the broadcasting agency will count the results of drivers passing fixed locations, such as 5 kilometers and 10 kilometers, and correct the estimated results."

The commentator is explaining to the audience how the so-called "real-time data" comes from in a scientific and rigorous manner.

"Of course, when George passes the half mark, we will receive an absolutely accurate data."

"We will know whether the gap between the two players who are directly competing for the yellow jersey has been widened or narrowed in the first half of the race."

"Now we see George in the yellow jersey passing the half mark - we see an exact time difference very quickly..."

Jacques was explaining here, but his words were immediately interrupted by a burst of excited shouts.

It was Roy's teammate Mikel who made the cry.

"31 seconds, 31 seconds..."

Mikel pointed to the data provided by the broadcaster, and could not say anything other than repeating the number.

Roy and George's half-time results have come out: the gap between the two has been shortened from 57 seconds to 31 seconds.

This is not an estimate, this is the real half-time result of the two.

The most important thing is that the first half is only a stage on flat ground.

As we all know, Roy's strength is the mountain stage. He wears a polka-dot shirt and is recognized as the "King of Long Slopes".

If George fails to bite Roy in the first half and maintain the gap between the two, then he is really in jeopardy in the second half.

Soon the camera came back with a close-up of George: Obviously George had heard the first half of the battle from the radio.

George's face began to panic, and there were more beads of sweat on his forehead than others. He even raised his body from time to time, as if he was going to rock the car—but this was not yet the mountain stage.

Even the audience standing in front of the screen could see George's nervousness——

"George's status..."

The commentator Jacques paused before continuing, "It's not quite the same as he was in all the previous stages."

"Of course, he still has half the time to continue. No one can say what the final result will be at this moment."

"Now it's time for Roy to change the bike. He will change the race car for the flat stage to the race car for the mountain stage."

"Changing cars is an extreme test of the cooperation between the driver and the team. A slight delay will affect the drivers who race against time. In addition, there are quite strict regulations on changing cars, and any carelessness may be punished."

"But Roy and his team managed to pull off the change..."

Jacques continued to explain very smoothly, with almost no interruption in the middle.

"It only took about 2 seconds for Roy to change the car. Now he has moved on. What is waiting for him is his strongest point - the mountain track."

In the picture, Roy continues the rest of his journey on a racing car suitable for riding on slopes.

The teardrop-shaped helmet on his head was off to the side, and it was Roy who was looking back.

He seems to be thanking the mechanics who helped him change the car;

As if somewhere out of sight, George, sweating profusely and chasing after him, greeted him.

The camera even caught a wacky smile on Roy's mouth, like a sly rabbit, as if to say:

"Come and catch me!"