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 Nevisracing 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.
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]
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
STAND: A memoir on activism. A manual for progress. What really happens when we stand on the front lines of change. (2021, New Shelf Press; ISBN1735901407)
^ abMacur, Juliet (26 July 2014). "Women as Athletes, Not Accessories, at Least for a Day". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 23 July 2022. 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."
^"Film Synopsis & Director Statement". Half the Road. 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2022. 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.
^Mertens, Maggie. "A Tour de France for Women—Finally". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 23 July 2022. 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.
^"Women's Tour manifesto published". BBC Sport. 12 September 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2022. 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.
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