![]() Bertine at the 2015 UCI Road World Championships | |
Personal information | |
---|---|
Born | Bronxville, New York | 11 May 1975
Team information | |
Role | Rider |
Amateur teams | |
2009 | Specialized D4W/Bicycle Haus [1] |
2010-2011 | TriSports Cycling-Eclipse Racing [1] |
Professional teams | |
2007 | Sport Beans/NTTC [1] |
2012-2013 | Colavita-espnW Pro Cycling [2] [3] |
2014 | Wiggle High5 |
2015 | BMW p/b Happy Tooth Dental |
2016-2017 | Cylance Pro Cycling |
Major wins | |
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]
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. [6] 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. [6] [7]
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. [6] [8] After attempting multiple sports including handball, open water swimming and modern pentathlon, she chose road cycling. [7] [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. [6] [7] 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. [9] 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. [9] 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. [9]
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. [12] In October 2013, the group met with ASO to work out how a women's race could be included in the Tour. [12]
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. [5] 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. [9]
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]
The Tour de France Femmes is an annual women's cycle stage race around France. It is organised by Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), which also runs the Tour de France. It is part of the UCI Women's World Tour.
Marianne Vos is a Dutch multi-discipline cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Team Visma–Lease a Bike.
Lauren Rollin is an Australian former professional racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2012 and 2021.
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Shara Marche is an Australian former professional cyclist, who competed professionally between 2011 and 2020, for the Bizkaia–Durango, Orica–AIS, Rabo–Liv and FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope teams. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she finished 13th in the time trial and 39th in the road race.
Jasmin Duehring is a German-born Canadian cyclist, who currently rides for American amateur team Virginia's Blue Ridge–TWENTY24. Duehring was part of the Canadian team that won bronze medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Olympics in the women's team pursuit. She was also part of the team that won gold at the 2011 Pan American Games in the team pursuit.
Jolien D'hoore is a Belgian former track and road cyclist, who rode professionally between 2007 and 2021 for the Topsport Vlaanderen–Ridley, Lotto–Belisol Ladies, Wiggle High5, Mitchelton–Scott and SD Worx teams. D'hoore is a 29-time national track champion as well as a four-time national road champion at all competition levels. She won the bronze medal in the omnium at the 2016 Olympics and during her career was one of the strongest sprinters in the women's peloton. Since retiring as a rider, D'hoore now works as a directeur sportif for UCI Women's Continental Team AG Insurance–Soudal–Quick-Step.
Lucy May van der Haar is a British former professional racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2013 and 2020 for the Team Liv–Plantur, Wiggle High5 and Hitec Products–Birk Sport teams. Van der Haar is a double junior world road race champion, winning in consecutive years, in 2011 and 2012.
Doris Schweizer is a Swiss racing cyclist, who most recently rode for UCI Women's Continental Team InstaFund Racing. She was the winner of the Swiss National Road Race Championships in 2013 and 2016 and the Swiss National Time Trial Championships in 2015 and 2016.
Lotta Pauliina Henttala is a Finnish racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Continental Team AG Insurance–Soudal–Quick-Step. She has won the Finnish National Road Race Championships seven times, consecutively between 2012 and 2018.
La Course by Le Tour de France was an elite women's professional road bicycle race held in France. First held in 2014 as a one-day race on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, it has been part of the UCI Women's WorldTour since 2016 as a one or two day race. The race was organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of the Tour de France. It was replaced in 2022 by Tour de France Femmes, a multi day stage race organised by ASO.
Floortje Mackaij is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Movistar Team.
The 2014 La Course by Le Tour de France was the inaugural edition of La Course by Le Tour de France, a women's cycling race held in France. The race was run before the 21st stage of the 2014 Tour de France on 27 July.
Tayler Wiles is an American racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. She rode at the 2014 UCI Road World Championships. Wiles originally played soccer until she entered the University of Utah as a pre-medical student at the age of 18. She subsequently took up cycling with her then boyfriend during her sophomore year in 2008.
Demi de Jong is a Dutch former road cyclist. As a junior, de Jong won the bronze medal in the women's junior time trial at the 2012 UCI Road World Championships. She started her professional career in 2014 at Boels–Dolmans. In her last season she rode for UCI Women's Continental Team Parkhotel Valkenburg, but ended her career due to a knee injury. She is the younger sister of the 2016 Cyclo-cross World Champion, Thalita de Jong.
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The 2022 Tour de France Femmes was the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes, which took place from 24 to 31 July 2022. It was the 16th event in the 2022 UCI Women's World Tour and followed years of campaigning by the women's professional peloton for an equivalent race to the men's Tour de France. The race drew large crowds and had substantial international media coverage, and was highly praised by the public, media, teams and riders.
Various professional women's cycle stage races across France have been held as an equivalent to the Tour de France for women, with the first of these races staged as a one off in 1955. From 1984, a women's Tour de France was staged consistently, although the name of the event changed several times - such as Tour de France Féminin, Tour of the EEC Women, Tour Cycliste Féminin and Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale.
Le Tour Entier is an activist group to improve women's cycle racing, and call for a women's Tour de France. The group was founded by multiple world champion Marianne Vos, Olympic silver medallist Emma Pooley, professional cyclist Kathryn Bertine and multiple world Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington in 2013.
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."
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.
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.
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.