I Want to Wield All My Power to Help Women in Motorcycling – Interview with XU Yiwen
I’m Empowered by Racing, and I Want to Empower More Girls
WANG Yan (王艳) oversees both the WorldSSP300 and Dakar Rally projects for KOVE motorsport department. Starting her adventure on a bike at 27 years of age, Yan has been able to combine her love for motorcycling with her business sense and management experience, assisting KOVE in making history for motorsport in China. Today, to round up our Chinese New Year special series, we give you the story of WANG Yan.
© All photos provided by WANG Yan
WANG Yan’s interest in motorbikes started like her interest in all hobbies – it looked fun and cool. She took a bet with her friends and learned the most basic things on a bike. From there, her journey as a casual rider began. “Then I started riding with my friends as casual riders after I learned the basic skills on a bike. I’ve always been interested in everything, motorcycling was just another new thing for me.”
But then, an accident made Yan get more serious with motorcycling. She wanted to ride in a more controlled environment. “I had a big accident on the road in the mountains. I realized it was too dangerous to ride on the road. At the time, I’d been to the circuit with my friends a few times. The riders in the racing scene looked even cooler. I thought it would be a better and safer way to improve my techniques in a controlled environment. So I signed up for a riders’ academy to get some proper training.”
Since Yan started motorcycling at a more mature age of 27, she didn’t steer all the way into the life of a professional rider. Rather, she used her training and amateur racing experience as a foundation to build a business career in the motorsport world – both as an entrepreneur and as a manager within manufacturers’ motorsport projects. “Before my motorcycling endeavour, I had a career in what people would consider a normal day job. I started my own business in 2014 in the motorsport world. With my resources, my skills, and my experience, I can create more value in this industry.”
Yan’s journey in the motorcycling world hasn’t always been about successes and glories. She has injured herself as a rider, gone bankrupt as an entrepreneur, and suffered internet bullying on many occasions. But her determination never wavered. “In the past ten years, I’ve had some serious failures on the business side. Some people attacked me online, even saying extremely inappropriate things about me, not knowing that they’ve been manipulated by people with bad intentions. But motorcycling is what I like, and it is what I do best. I have what it takes to do well in this industry, so I believe I can create more value or even miraculous and legendary results here.”
In 2022, Yan joined KOVE in their new WorldSSP300 and Dakar Rally project. Together with ZHANG Xue (张雪), the founder of KOVE, Yan opened a new chapter in Chinese motorsport. “I started with building up a personal IP for Xue, growing his social media followers from 10k to 150k within a year. At the same time, we were preparing to race in the world championships together. We needed to learn everything there was in motorsport and work with international partners. All of us explored this unknown territory hand in hand, crawling over many obstacles. Because no one knew how to do it, every day was a difficult day, there was a lot of trial and error.”
Our engineers in the factory in China, our team in Spain, our trade partners across Europe, everyone has their role and responsibility. All of us together made our project possible.
In 2024, KOVE’s WorldSSP300 project first took the glory home. Julio Garcia González stood on the podium in Race 2 at the opening round in Barcelona, giving the manufacturer their first podium. In the last race of the championship in Jerez, he made history again by delivering the team’s maiden win – a Chinese manufacturer’s maiden win in WSBK history. “In our second year in WorldSSP300, building on our experience from the 2023 season, we were improving on every front. But it wasn’t all smooth, we’ve had problems with the bike during the season. Again thanks to the joint effort of everyone in the project, we were able to deliver what we promised at the beginning of the season – our national anthem was played on the podium, and we had seven more podiums on top of this win.”
Despite the success, when asked what could they have done better, Yan still saw more potential in the project. “Two years was too short for a new team to deliver results in world championships. We were trying to do what others took more than five years to do. Because there were too many unknowns, we couldn’t plan ahead in the best way possible. A lot of decisions were made in a hurry as a result.”
Less than three months after KOVE’s first win in WorldSSP300, their effort on the rally-raid front came to fruition as well. Expanding from their three-factory-bike debut in 2023 and six-bike line-up in 2024, KOVE’s 2025 Dakar Rally line-up included four factory riders and eight independent riders. On January 17, at the end of the grueling cross-country marathon, KOVE’s factory rider Neels Theric finished 15th overall, making history by setting the best result of a Chinese manufacturer at the Dakar Rally. “Supporting 12 riders is a much more complex task than supporting three or six riders. If something goes wrong on the bike, we need to trace it all the way back to where it went wrong in the factory or in the supply chain. This is a good way to test our product. I’m very proud of what the team and I have been able to achieve this year. We delivered record-breaking results, and this is also great for our international marketing since we have so many riders from different markets.”
The success in the Dakar Rally wasn’t given, and to improve year after year, KOVE and the motorcycle industry in China will face even more challenges in the years to come. “When we made our Dakar debut in 2023, people thought it would be a disaster. But we had the courage to take the first step despite all the disapproval from people. In WorldSSP300, we can rely on electronics a lot more, and we can work on it alone within the motorsport project. But in rally-raid, to get into the top tier, it’s much more of a team effort, it takes our entire factory and all our partners in the supply chain. We needed to aim at a top 10 finish – this takes more than just one manufacturer, our entire supply chain in China need to aim at this goal together.”
Yan has made history with KOVE, and they’ve become the pioneer in international motorsport for all Chinese manufacturers. Starting her journey again from the successes, Yan’s love for motorcycling will push her towards even bigger aspirations. “Since Chinese manufacturers started producing bikes, we were more focused on commuting needs. Xue was the first person to aim higher. He wanted to leverage motorsport to build high-performance bikes. With the support from our shareholders and the team, we were able to take the first step and inspire more people to follow. I’m always excited about this industry, and working on motorsport projects makes me love this industry more and more every day. We’ve made history in WSBK and the Dakar Rally with the best result from a Chinese manufacturer, but I still have bigger aspirations in WSBK, in Dakar, and in other championships. I will continue to work with those who share the same vision to realize my dreams.”
Let’s wait and see what Yan will bring us in her future endeavour!
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* This rounds up our Chinese New Year special series for Year of the Snake. It also opens our 2025 Dakar Rally series. On February 25 and March 5, we bring you two more featured Dakar Rally interviews with French co-driver Lucie Baud and Delphine Delfino.
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