I’m a cyclist. I like cycling for my commute, fast rides, rides in the suburbs, fat biking in the snow. I like watching competitive cycling: men’s and women’s races. I watch more women’s racing because of Kathryn Bertine.
Kathryn Bertine details her activism for equality with women’s cycling in Stand. It’s a memoir detailing the ups and down in her professional life, and the ups and down in her personal life. All those ups and downs are framed in the story of her efforts to get a women’s version of the Tour de France and move towards equality between women’s professional cycling and men’s professional cycling.
My first request is that you pay more attention to women’s cycling. The women’s races are as exciting as the men’s races. There is a chicken and egg problem with women’s cycling. Fewer people are watching it because there is less coverage and inferior coverage. There is less coverage and inferior coverage because the producers think fewer people are watching.
I picked up GCN+ this year to watch cycling races. I tried to watch as many women’s races as men’s races. When I click on a story about men’s racing, I make sure to click on a story about women’s racing. I usually buy a watercolor from Greig Leach each cycling season. This year I bought all women’s races, realizing that my shelf was just art from the men’s races. My favorite was this example of the results of Karthyn’s efforts for equality in cycling. Lizzie Deignan winning the first Paris Roubaix Femmes:
Equality. Once you know the teams and the riders, it’s more enjoyable. Whether it’s the men or the women on the bikes.
Kathryn is a bad ass athlete and a fantastic writer. I first came across her writing in As Good as Gold. She worked for ESPN documenting her quest to make the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. She tried lots of sports: triathlon, modern pentathlon, team handball, luge, rowing, open water swimming, racewalking, track cycling, and road cycling. She was unsuccessful in most of those. She was a competitive triathlete, but not at an Olympic level. Turns out she was excellent at cycling and that experience led to her pro career.
It was the vast difference in treatment of the men’s and women’s professional cycling that lead to Stand. She encountered clear discrimination and dismissive treatment by those running the professional cycling organizations. Sponsors were not there for women’s cycling because there was so much less coverage of women’s cycling. There was so much less coverage because the cycling organizations were not promoting the races and therefore there were fewer sponsors. I view it as a terrible circle of passing the blame.
It took someone like Kathryn to stand up and push for equality. Stand is her story in this push for equality.
I’m going to spoil part of the ending. Kathryn established The Homestretch Foundation to provide temporary housing and other resources to professional or elite athletes—primarily female athletes—who face financial and economic discrepancies. If you’ve gotten this far down the page and aren’t a book reader, please consider sending a donation to The Homestretch Foundation.
