My name is Kathryn Bertine, and I’m a pro cyclist living and training in Tucson…only I happen to be in the Caribbean at the moment. How I got here is a bit of a long story, but here’s the condensed version: Two years ago, ESPN hired me to write about my two-year attempt to make it to the Beijing Olympics. Alas, I didn’t make it. But here’s the cool part; I didn’t exactly fail. The experiences along the way made for an incredible journey, with unbelievable races, people, and nations all playing huge parts in my quest.
Halfway through my Olympic attempt, I was given dual citizenship with the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis in order to help the country build a prominent future in cycling. While I’m still racing toward my own dreams of 2012, I’m finally in a position to start giving back to the country that helped me so much in my quest. I’m currently on the island of Nevis. What an incredible experience cycling here. for starters, the island has one paved road all the way around measuring just over 20 miles. The hills are killer. The winds are killerer. I can’t begin to tell you how fascinating it is to watch out for monkeys, donkeys, goats, and crabs…all of which love to dart into the road without notice. Ok, crabs don’t dart. They scuttle. They’re not so startling. Except for the fact that, dude, there’s a crab in the road. We don’t see that much in Tucson. Cooler still are the people, all 10,000 of them on Nevis. There are less than twenty in the cycling club, but we’re changing that every day. One goal is to build an inter-Caribbean women’s UCI team, so the islands can get better world wide recognition. I was fortunate enough to race in the World Champs in Varese, Italy this year. Someday, there will be more of us, which is why the other goal of my volunteering down here is much more grassroots. The Nevis Cycling Club and I are trying to get as many kids into cycling as possible.
Congratulations to the RoadBikeRides.com member JD787 for winning the November Monthly Contest and will receive $100 gift certificate to www.TriSports.com.
Check out the contest at your chance at winning $100 gift certificate for the month of December.
Looks as though Lance Armstrong won’t be racing at the Tour de Georgia in 2009. The Tour de Georgia has been canceled because of lack of money. Bummer! Would have been cool to see Lance race in the states on his come back trail leading up to the Tour de France.
For more information check out the article that was written over on Bloomberg.
Congratulations to RoadBikeRides.com member CYCLINGEER for winning the RoadBikeRides.com October monthly contest. CYCLINGEER will receive a $100 gift certificate to TriSports.com. JAMTHEPELOTON was the winner in September so CYCLINGEER took home the win because of the no back-to-back win policy.
Below is how the podium played out for the month of October. Thank you to all RoadBikeRides.com members who added some great ride content to the website in the month of October.
RoadBikeRides.com Race to the Yellow Jersey Leader Board Results
First a BIG thanks to all the Road Bike Rides dot com members who contributed content to the site!
Over the past 6 months, there have been many great cycling routes with detailed ride maps all across the country posted on the Road Bike Rides site.
The Race to The Yellow Jersey winners were as follows:
1st place and the $10,000 cash prize went to DrHule23 who came on strong during the summer stages.
2nd place and a brand new bike went to Weiland. Weiland set the pace from stage one and was on top of the leader board in the early stages.
3rd place heated up towards the end between JamThePeloton and Cyclingineer. JamThePeloton squeezed out 3rd place and a brand new set of Zipp 404 wheels
4th place Cyclingineer and a brand new Garmin Edge.
5th place Snewman and a brand new Garmin Edge.
6th place Cargoaa and a brand new Garmin Edge.
7th place Booracerr and a brand new Garmin Edge.
8th place JD7877 and a brand new Garmin Edge.
9th place Andrewksuu and a brand new Garmin Edge.
10th place Skinnylegs and a brand new Garmin Edge.
We will be getting out the prizes within the next two weeks after we review the legitimacy of the members point totals within the contest rules and guidelines.
Again thank you to all the members for being an early adopter to the site and contributing content. Look for more contests in the future and enhancements to the site.
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