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Dong plans to retire, but he will never quit
Print Edition
CYCLING has been an inseparable part in Dong Xiaoyong’s life since he was 16. Over the years, he tasted both joy and bitterness because of his passion for the sport.
“I am 30 this (coming) year,” says Dong, with concern showing on his face, “an age a little bit old for a rider. But I’ll never give up cycling.”
Dong, with the Qinghai Tianyoude Cycling Team, was born in 1988 in northwest China’s Qinghai Province. As the son of a former cyclist, he was attached to his bicycle from a very young age.
When he reached middle-school age, he received a used bicycle from his father, Dong Mingfa, who was then a rider with the Qinghai Cycling Team. That bicycle became Dong Xiaoyong’s childhood companion, guiding him on his cycling journey.
In 2004, after Dong graduated from middle school, he went to the Qinghai Sports School and started training with the school’s cycling team.
Although the training was tough and the future unknown, he insisted on pursuing his dream.
“It was really hard at the very beginning,” Dong recalls. “We had to run around 10 kilometers and ride about 60 to 150 kilometers each day, rain or shine.”
“After a whole day’s training, my bottom hurt, and my head ached. I couldn’t even climb into my bunk bed.”
All those pains have since turned into gains. Dong’s diligence paid off.
In 2005, he took part in the 3rd Tour of Qinghai Lake and was one of only three among his seven teammates to complete the race.
In 2006, he became the champion of the junior class at the Qinghai Provincial Sports Games.
Ten years later, in the 2016 Tour of Qinghai Lake, Dong was awarded the blue jersey as the Best Asian Rider in stage one.
He has become a professional cyclist and also the pride of his team and his family. Over the years, as long as the Qinghai Tianyoude Cycling Team joins the Tour of Qinghai Lake, Dong’s father went to the starting point and presented each rider a hada — the long, white Tibetan prayer scarf.
In 2008, Dong went to Switzerland for training. That overseas journey greatly improved his skills, and brought him a lifelong friend and future teammate as well.
The active and outgoing Chinese young man made many friends in Switzerland — Venezuelan rider Yonnatta Monsalve was one of them.
Although they spoke different languages — one Spanish, and the other Chinese — they had no problem understanding each other. Eye contact and gestures were enough.
On May 2017, these two close friends finally met again in China and became teammates when Yonnatta was officially signed as a rider of Qinghai Tianyoude Cycling Team.
“I was surprised and excited when I heard that Yonnatta would join our team. It’s really good to fight shoulder-to-shoulder for the honor of our team,” Dong says.
Together, we win
In the 2017 Tour of Qinghai Lake that finished on July 29, Yonnatta kept the yellow jersey as the stage winner for five stages and finished the race as the winner.
“It’s hard to win one yellow jersey, but it’s much harder to keep it,” says Dong. “Because over 20 teams struggled against us, trying to grab it.”
Although Tianyoude Cycling Team is not the best team, it is one of the most united teams. To protect Yonnatta to keep the yellow jersey, Dong and all the other teammates always rode to the fore, and dealt with challenges as they arose.
At stage nine, Dong was exhausted and had to withdraw the competition halfway. But with the whole team backing him, Yonnatta successfully kept the yellow yersey.
Seeing Yonnatta standing on the top podium, Dong cried like a kid.
“It’d been a rough race for everyone. It is really so hard,” he says now.
As a rider, Dong has given up a lot. Injuries and scars for him are almost like badges of honor.
At one stage in the 2010 Tour of Qinghai Lake, Dong tumbled and flew off from his bicycle while he was speeding up in the sprint for the last 500 meters. He suffered severe abrasions.
“It hurt like being burned by a lighter,” Dong says. “I was in so much pain that I couldn’t stop crying at night. But I had to bear it and continue racing the next day.”
In the National Cycling Race in 2015 in Jilin Province, the wheels of his bicycle broke when he almost reached the final stage. Dong was again thrown off the bike and badly hurt. Another time, he lost a medal. He says losing the medal left him in much more pain and regret than the physical pain itself did.
Pain and scars are everywhere on Dong’s body after years of cycling. Aging makes it worse. Dong says he will retire after the ongoing National Games of China this year, but he will never stop cycling.
“Cycling is like my life, with ups and downs, but anyway, we should be down-to-earth and keep going forward,” says the persistent cyclist.
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