Astoria native completes ride of a lifetime

Published 2:02 pm Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Joe Dominey thought he knew fatigue, until he had to ride 21 stages in 23 days during a bike race in France.

“I kept telling myself that the pain is temporary and I thought about my mom, my dad, my wife and everybody who were supporting me,” Dominey said. “If my mom can battle cancer for five years then I can get myself through a bike race.”

Dominey, an Astoria native and current Beaverton resident, recently completed an event called Tour 21 “a fundraising ride to cure leukemia.” Cure Leukemia is an official sponsor of the Tour de France and Tour 21 is an organized event where the riders perform the same stages as the professional cyclists. The riders get a police escort and work together to get themselves over some of the highest mountain peaks in the world.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the other guys,” Dominey said. “By the end of the tour I could hardly get out of bed and would struggle to thread a needle. There were times I felt like I wasn’t going to make it, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity I wasn’t going to let go of.”

Growing up in Astoria, Dominey was a decorated athlete in football and track. After graduation, he went on to attend Linfield College where he was named a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-American for his senior year in football.

Dominey then started his career as a sports broadcaster. Dominey discovered cycling in 2005 while working in Laredo, Texas. After that it has become his main form of exercise and something that inspires him to wake up every morning. Throughout his time as a cyclist, Dominey mostly rode time trials.

Though he was mostly a speed racer, Dominey always had a dream of riding the Alps and the Pyrenees. In 2022, he and his mother Jean traveled to France, where Dominey got to ride the high mountains.

With his mom now on year five of her terminal leukemia battle Dominey knew returning to France was what he had to do.

“The woman just refuses to die,” Dominey said. “She told me that even if she passed away while I was in France to continue the race. She wanted me to finish it regardless of whether she was around or not.”

He joined 15 other riders from all around the world in their quest to battle what some experts said was the hardest Tour de France route of all time.

“Because we weren’t racing each other I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery of France,” Dominey said. “We rode by castles and chateaus, while also climbing the Pyrenees and Alps. It was the most brutal, savage experience of my life.”

Perhaps the most significant landmark Dominey passed was the town of Lourdes.

Lourdes is located in the southwestern Pyrenees of France and is a place Dominey and his mother visited in 1984. 

“Lourdes is a significant town for the Catholic faith,” Dominey said. “My mother was a Catholic nun for 15 years before she left the order to marry my father and have me at 40 years of age.”

“You could call it God’s will or just nature doing strange things, but I did feel something special as we passed through the town,” he said. “We rode right through the grotto that me and my mom visited. Everything in this tour seemed to happen exactly as I hoped it would.”

Dominey said the group was also riding for a boy named Douglas who passed away from cancer a few years ago. One of his relatives was doing the bike race for him and every member of the group thought about Douglas as they rode Stage 16.

Throughout his time in France, Dominey kept a journal documenting his daily experiences. He described in great detail the ups and downs of riding the toughest bike race ever created. Dominey said as the group approached Paris and the Champs-Elysées, he started to get emotional.

“We all felt a little sad as we approached Paris, because we knew this would be the last time we’d ever be together,” Dominey said. “Every single rider in our group finished the race.”

Since the amateur racers arrived in Paris a week ahead of the professionals, they were allowed to stay in France to watch the conclusion of the men’s clash. This allowed Dominey and his wife Shannon to spend time together.

“She’s been super supportive of my obsession,” Dominey said. “The whole first year of our marriage was me training for this, so I told her after I finished that wherever she wants to go in France I’m down to do it. I couldn’t have gotten through it without her support.”

Before Dominey left France on Monday, July 28, he talked about a moment he will cherish forever. 

“We were at a store and I saw a yellow jersey and yellow hat,” Dominey said. “I decided to buy it since the race was over … and I started crying, because I felt like I had earned the right to wear yellow.”

Yellow is the color the leader of the tour wears. It’s a distinct color that every rider dreams of donning, even if for just one day. Dominey will now have the yellow jersey and hat as a souvenir. To him, this shows him what he’s accomplished.

Dominey said he was proud to represent the state of Oregon, and more importantly, Astoria.

“I saw a guy wearing an Oregon Ducks jacket and when people would ask me where I’m from I would say Oregon,” Dominey said. “When I’d tell them that the Goonie house was just one block away from my childhood home they would all say that was their favorite movie. It really shows how small the world is and that even in Europe people know about Astoria. Just so happy to represent this small town and the state of Oregon.”

The riders have raised $1,057,061 to date, and counting. Dominey himself has personally raised $44,500 dollars and people can still donate at the website: justgiving.com. The link is provided: https://tinyurl.com/45eda8ba

Paul Matli