Kathryn Bertine Explained

Kathryn Bertine
Birth Date:11 May 1975
Birth Place:Bronxville, New York
Role:Rider
Amateuryears1:2009
Amateurteam1:Specialized D4W/Bicycle Haus
Amateuryears2:2010-2011
Amateurteam2:TriSports Cycling-Eclipse Racing
Proyears1:2007
Proteam1:Sport Beans/NTTC[1]
Proyears2:2012-2013
Proteam2:Colavita-espnW Pro Cycling[2] [3]
Proyears3:2014
Proyears4:2015
Proteam4:BMW p/b Happy Tooth Dental
Proyears5:2016-2017
Proteam5:Cylance Pro Cycling
Majorwins:Saint Kitts and Nevis National Road Race Champion (2009–2011)
Saint Kitts and Nevis National Time Trial Champion (2009–2011)

Kathryn Bertine (born 11 May 1975) is a Saint Kitts and Nevis racing cyclist,[4] author, activist, film-maker and former professional figure skater and professional triathlete. She turned professional in road cycling in 2012 and raced on World Tour teams until 2017. Bertine competed in eight UCI Road World Championships, won three Caribbean Championship titles and six Saint Kitts and Nevis National Championship titles.

She is best known for her activism in petitioning the organisers of the Tour de France, the Amaury Sport Organisation, to launch a women's Tour de France.[5]

Biography

Bertine was born in Bronxville, New York. After a sporting childhood, she became a professional figure skater aged 23, appearing in ice skating shows including the Ice Capades and Holiday on Ice.[6] She undertook her undergraduate education at Colgate University, where she competed in cross country running and rowing alongside skating. After graduating she took a year out to travel and pursue her skating career, before returning to education to study for a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Arizona.

Whilst in Arizona she took up competing in triathlon, eventually spending three years as a professional in the sport. Her first book was published in 2003, a memoir of her sporting childhood and professional figure skating career.[7] By 2005, Bertine was a professional triathlete, however this was not financially sustainable.

In 2006, she began working with ESPN on a project to take her to the Olympics. The idea was to see if she, "a decently talented but by no means gifted athlete", could make it to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[8] After attempting multiple sports including handball, open water swimming and modern pentathlon, she chose road cycling.[9] In January 2007, she took up Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship to improve her chances of selection for the Olympics, after failing to make the United States team. Bertine did not make the selection for the Olympics, but continued to compete as a cyclist for Saint Kitts and Nevis, winning the national road race and time trial championships three times between 2009 and 2011.

After experiencing the gender inequities in sport, Bertin became an activist for women's cycling. Frustrated why there was no official 'Women's Tour de France', Bertine wrote to the organisers of the race—Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO)—with a business plan on how such a race could be created. No response was received.[10]

Her cycling career continued, with her first professional contract with Team Colavita in 2012. She also began work on a documentary film about women's cycling, interviewing key members of the peloton, asking them about the inequalities of women's cycling. Bertine subsequently explained that her activism was ignored by the governing body, and that teams asked her to keep quiet about the issue.

In 2013, Bertine and Dutch rider Marianne Vos, English rider Emma Pooley and triathlete Chrissie Wellington formed an activist group called Le Tour Entier (“the whole tour”), to petition ASO to launch a women's Tour de France.[11] [12] A manifesto was published,[13] and over 100,000 signatures were received. In October 2013, the group met with ASO to work out how a women's race could be included in the Tour.

In April 2014, Half the Road, her documentary film on women's cycling was released.[14] In July 2014, the first edition of La Course by Le Tour de France was staged on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, ahead of the final stage of the 2014 Tour de France.[15] Organised by ASO, La Course was welcomed by the professional peloton, media and campaigners, with Bertine praised for being the "catalyst" behind the push for the race. Bertine raced for Wiggle Honda in 2014, taking the start line on the Champs-Élysées.

Bertine joined BMW p/b Happy Tooth Dental in 2015, making her debut with the team at Grand Prix cycliste de Gatineau in June of that year.[16] In November 2015 she was announced as part of the Cylance Pro Cycling team for the 2016 season.[17] Bertine continued to criticise cycling's governing body and race organisers, expressing disappointment that La Course had not evolved into a multi day stage race.[18] In 2017, she retired from professional racing, and created the Homestretch Foundation, which assists female pro athletes who struggle with the gender pay gap.[19] Her fourth book, a memoir on activism, was published in February 2021.

Bertine continued her activism for women's cycling, working with others in the professional peloton to push for a minimum wage for professional cyclists, greater live TV coverage and a continued push for a women's Tour de France.[20] [21] In 2021, ASO announced that the Tour de France Femmes would be held over 8 days in July 2022. The announcement was met with praise by the media, peloton and campaigners including Bertine.[22] [23] She did caution that the women's race would be significantly shorter than the men's race, with less prize money and TV coverage.[24]

Major results

2009
  • 1st Saint Kitts and Nevis National Time Trial Championships
  • 1st Saint Kitts and Nevis National Road Race Championships
    2010
  • 10th Pan American Time Trial Championships
  • 1st Saint Kitts and Nevis National Time Trial Championships
  • 1st Saint Kitts and Nevis National Road Race Championships
  • 1st Flapjack Flats Time Trial[25]
    2011
  • 1st Saint Kitts and Nevis National Time Trial Championships
  • 1st Saint Kitts and Nevis National Road Race Championships
  • 5th Valley of the Sun Stage Race[26]
    2012
  • 2nd Tucson Bicycle Classic[27]
  • 5th Valley of the Sun Stage Race[28]
    2013
  • 1st Caribbean Time Trial Championships
    2014
  • 1st Caribbean Time Trial Championships
    2015
  • 1st Caribbean Time Trial Championships

    Works

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: Race Results for Kathryn Bertine . . USA Cycling. 4 July 2014.
    2. Hudak . Kristen . 2012-03-20 . Colavita forms new Women's Pro Cycling Team, cobranded with espnW . . 2014-07-04.
    3. Web site: Fine Cooking Joins Colavita to Sponsor New Pro Women's Cycling Team . . 7 February 2013 . teamcolavita.com . 4 July 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140714191630/http://www.teamcolavita.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&page_id=182 . 14 July 2014 . dead .
    4. Web site: Kathryn Bertine . 2013-10-05 . ProCyclingStats.
    5. News: Macur . Juliet . 2014-07-26 . Women as Athletes, Not Accessories, at Least for a Day . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-07-23 . 0362-4331 . she was actually the catalyst for the movement to bring women back to the Tour.“She pretty much single-handedly made this happen,” said Connie Carpenter-Phinney, the gold medalist in the first women’s Olympic road race, in 1984. “She made people sit up and listen.”.
    6. Web site: Fan . Pan Pan . 9 August 2012 . Road to the Olympics: Kathryn Bertine, Cyclist . 4 July 2014 . Bleacher Report.
    7. Web site: Friedman . Steve . 2016-07-21 . Kathryn Bertine Had It All Figured Out . 2022-07-23 . Bicycling . en-US.
    8. Web site: 2014 . Film Synopsis & Director Statement . 2022-07-23 . Half the Road . en-US . My journey into the world of women’s road cycling is a rather unorthodox one. In 2006, I was hired by ESPN to author an ESPN.com column called “So You Wanna Be an Olympian?” the basis of which was to see if I—a decently talented but by no means gifted athlete—could make it to the Beijing Olympics in just two years. In 2007, I switched from being a pro triathlete to a rookie road cyclist. I fell hard for cycling; figuratively and often literally..
    9. Web site: Schmidt . Caitlin . 16 Feb 2021 . Tucson cyclist Kathryn Bertine takes a stand with memoir about her accomplishments, activism . 2022-07-23 . Arizona Daily Star . en.
    10. Mertens . Maggie . A Tour de France for Women—Finally . 2022-07-23 . Sports Illustrated . en-us . In 2009, Bertine was an aspiring professional cyclist and sports journalist, who couldn’t figure out why there was no Tour de France Féminin anymore. She came up with a business plan of her own for how to incorporate a women’s race into the Tour and independently reached out to ASO about it. She didn’t hear back..
    11. News: 12 September 2013 . Women's Tour manifesto published . en-GB . BBC Sport . 2022-02-15 . More than 93,000 have signed a petition by the group, led by cyclist and writer Kathryn Bertine, World Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington, and cyclists Marianne Vos and Emma Pooley..
    12. News: Macur . Juliet . 2014-07-26 . Women as Athletes, Not Accessories, at Least for a Day . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-02-15 . 0362-4331.
    13. Web site: amrook . 2013-09-12 . Vos, Pooley heat up Tour de France campaign . 2022-07-23 . Podium Cafe . en.
    14. News: Gates . Anita . 2014-04-18 . A Plea for Equal Pay for Equal Pedaling . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-07-23 . 0362-4331.
    15. News: 15 July 2014 . La Course to showcase women's cycling . en-GB . BBC Sport . 2022-02-15.
    16. Web site: . 2 June 2015 . BMW P/B Happy Tooth Line Up For GP Gatineau . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151224104158/http://www.bmwhappytooth.com/news/2015/6/2/bmw-pb-happy-tooth-line-up-for-gp-gatineau . 24 December 2015 . 20 September 2015 . BMW p/b Happy Tooth Dental.
    17. Web site: Weislo . Laura . 10 November 2015 . New women's team Cylance taking aim at inaugural WorldTour . 24 December 2015 . cyclingnews.com.
    18. News: Payne . Marissa . 18 October 2017 . Women's cycling advocates 'disappointed' after Tour de France reverts La Course to one day . 19 July 2022 . Washington Post.
    19. Web site: Davis . Taja . 2021-05-03 . The Homestretch Foundation, fighting the gender pay gap for female pro cyclists . 2022-07-23 . . en.
    20. Web site: Richardson . Hollie . 2019-06-24 . The lack of women's Tour de France proves sexism in sports . 2022-02-15 . Stylist . en.
    21. News: 16 July 2018 . Why is there no women's Tour de France? . en-GB . BBC Sport . 2022-02-15.
    22. Web site: 2021-10-14 . The women's peloton reacts to the Tour de France Femmes route . 2022-02-15 . CyclingTips . en.
    23. Web site: David . Maria . 2021-10-15 . Tour de France Femmes: A jewel that we must cherish, says Marion Rousse . 2022-02-15 . cyclingnews.com . en.
    24. Web site: 22 June 2021 . New women's Tour de France is a win, but this pro cyclist says the race isn't over yet . 23 July 2022 . CBC.
    25. Web site: Race Results for Flapjack Flats Time Trial . . . 4 July 2014.
    26. Web site: Race Results for Valley of the Sun Stage Race . . . 4 July 2014.
    27. Web site: Race Results for Tucson Bicycle Classic . . . 4 July 2014.
    28. Web site: Race Results for Valley of the Sun Stage Race . . . 4 July 2014.

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