It was another year of spring.
When it was April, Banta City became lively again.
Because it was time for the spring bicycle race in Banta City, there were many people who loved cycling that came from all directions.
These people didn't just come from Banta City, they also came from cities other than Banta City. There were many people who came from countries other than the Lampari Kingdom.
The most exaggerated thing was that there were people from the Norton Duchy that was over two thousand kilometers away from Banta City to participate in this race.
Although starting in February of this year, because the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce had built a road that connected the entire Norton Duchy, as well as connecting it to the roads of the Lampari Kingdom and the Kingdom of Ruhr, the Fersen Transport Chamber of Commerce had taken this chance to open a long distance public transport line from the Norton Duchy to the Lampari Kingdom, making it quite convenient to come here.
But the road was over a thousand and five hundred kilometers. Even if they took the public transport Magic Car, it would take close to three days to get here.
When the reporter of the « Banta Times » received this news, he specially interviewed this participant who had come from afar.
In response to the reporter's question, the participant from the Norton Duchy said that this was a dream that he had had since he heard that there was a professional bicycle race in Banta City that had been organized for several years.
No matter how far it was, he would definitely participate.
This report was published in the « Banta Times » and was reprinted by the newspapers of the Lampari Kingdom and the surrounding countries, which made everyone even more excited.
For a while, Banta City was filled with people and it was very lively. It was even several times livelier compared to a normal festival.
But after this year's race, for Banta City, the Xinfei bicycle race that was held twice a year was treated as a festival by the people.
Even the Banta City's City Lord Manor, in order to coordinate with this race, had specially arranged for the various companies and factories in Banta City to have three days off each year, so that people could participate in this celebration.
This year's spring bicycle race was even more eye-catching than the previous ones.
Because according to the news that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had announced in the « Banta Times » ahead of time, after half a year of preparation, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce led the other seven magic machine companies that produced bicycles to hold a road bicycle race after this year's spring bicycle race.
New Flyer and the other seven bicycle companies would each organize a professional bicycle team to participate in this race, competing for the championship together.
According to the announced rules, this championship would start after the Frestech Road Bicycle Race's spring race and end before the Frestech Road Bicycle Race's fall race in October each year. It would last for half a year.
For now, the tournament would only be held in eight cities in the Lampuri Kingdom. There would be a champion in each round and then points would be given based on the rankings in each round. In the end, the final champion and the rest of the rankings would be decided based on the accumulated points of the eight rounds.
At the same time, according to the news that New Flyer had revealed, starting next year, the race would most likely be held in cities outside the Lampari Kingdom, while also expanding the scale of the race.
But for the citizens, what they cared about the most wasn't the details of the race, but rather the prize money.
When New Flyer announced last year that they would be holding this race, they had said that the champion would receive a terrifying prize of over fifty thousand gold coins, which had already shocked everyone.
But when the Frestech Chamber of Commerce officially announced the tournament this year, the prize money that was revealed made everyone unable to believe their eyes.
A hundred thousand gold coins!
The cyclist who won the championship would receive a minimum of 100,000 gold coins as prize money!
Almost everyone held their breath for a moment when they saw this number.
God, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce must have gone crazy!
A hundred thousand gold coins!
What kind of concept was this!
It had to be known, a hundred gold coins was enough for a normal family to live a carefree life for a year.
A hundred thousand gold coins, that was equal to the annual income of some small cities in the Lampari Kingdom!
Even if they had seen New Flyer's crazy actions countless times, seeing this terrifying prize money this time, everyone could smell the scent of madness.
Perhaps it was because of this prize money, most people focused on the bicycle race that was about to be held. It made people pay less attention to the Xinfei spring bicycle race.
However, New Flyer and the other bicycle companies that were organizing the bicycle race released a statement in the « Banta Times » that pulled everyone's attention back.
In this statement, New Flyer and the other seven bicycle companies stated that the Xinfei spring bicycle race was the first stage of the Xinfei bicycle race. Their eight companies would pay attention to the competitors who performed well in the Xinfei spring bicycle race and choose the best of them to join their own teams.
According to the information released by the eight companies, once one joined one of the eight companies' teams and became a professional bicycle racer, they would receive at least five hundred gold coins a year. At the same time, they would receive a competition prize.
Calculating it all, even if they couldn't receive a terrifying sum of a hundred thousand gold coins, it wouldn't be hard to earn several thousand gold coins a year.
Once this news was released, everyone's enthusiasm for the spring bicycle race in Xinfei was raised again.
This time was different from the previous years. If one performed well in the race, they could join a professional bicycle team and become a professional bicycle racer, earning a large income.
So the atmosphere was different from the previous years. There were a bunch of people who were eager to get a good result in the race, trying to be noticed by a professional bicycle team. The competition was very intense.
In this kind of wild atmosphere, the other piece of news that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce announced through the « Banta Times » was unavoidably ignored by people.
The content of this news was that New Flyer was planning to build a race track outside Banta City, holding a Magic Sedan race there.
This race track had already been held in the Principality of Constantine for over a year, so it was very popular in the Principality of Constantine. But this was the first time it had appeared in the Lampari Kingdom, so naturally it didn't attract that much attention.
Other than this, there was another main problem. Compared to bicycles that only cost several dozen gold coins, even the most expensive professional bicycle cost at most a hundred gold coins. Even the cheapest Magic Sedan cost over a thousand gold coins, which was not something normal people could touch.
So the Magic Sedan was something that belonged to another world to most normal people. It wasn't that related to them, so naturally the Magic Sedan race wouldn't attract their interest.
Of course, normal people didn't care, but that didn't mean that no one cared.
Since New Flyer's first Magic Sedan was released, in less than two years, they had already sold over seventy three thousand Magic Sedans.
Although it paled in comparison to the sales of over a million bicycles, it wasn't a small number.
Just in the Lampari Kingdom, the Xinfei Brand Magic Sedans had sold over forty thousand units.
In Banta City, there were over fifteen thousand Magic Sedans.
The reason for this was because the Magic Sedans were first released in Banta City, so they were accepted the fastest.
On the other hand, it was because of the development of the New Flyer in Banta City, so the economy was developing very well. Other than the traditional nobles and merchants, there were many normal citizens who became rich.
Take old man Sarkozy who had been transporting goods for the New Flyer. He was just a normal farmer before, but after transporting goods for the New Flyer and other companies, he had accumulated over five thousand gold coins.
Last year, old man Sarkozy had taken out a thousand and five hundred gold coins to buy the New Flyer's newest Magic Sedan.
And this was just one example.
In Banta City, there were countless people like old man Sarkozy who relied on their own hard work to become rich in just a few years.
For many people in Banta City, the Magic Sedan wasn't something that couldn't be reached.
Of course, being able to buy a Magic Sedan and being qualified to participate in a Magic Sedan race were two different things.
For someone like old man Sarkozy, the Magic Sedan was something he could afford, but it was very precious and he wasn't willing to let it be damaged.
If it was used in a race, there might be some accidents, so normal families definitely couldn't afford to play with it.
So like this, the only ones who were interested in the Magic Sedan race were those who had good financial conditions, so they wouldn't feel bad even if one or two cars broke.
At the same time, these people needed to have a lot of free time, so they had enough energy and stamina to prepare for the Magic Sedan race.
After these conditions were filtered out, there weren't many people who met the requirements.
In Banta City, there were less than fifty people who were willing to participate in the Magic Sedan race.
Without an exception, these forty people were all "rich second generations" of large nobles and merchants in Banta City.
The only remaining member of the Stagg Family in the Lampuri Kingdom, Baron Belil, was one of them.