The Road Less Taken by Kathryn Bertine

As I've mentioned, I am a recreational cyclist. I want to really emphasize the recreational part of that sentence- I ride a few hours a week and at an average speed that might make Kathryn Bertine, author of The Road Less Taken, fall fast asleep. Kathryn is a retired professional cyclist who has twice taken aim at the Olympics. I was really excited to come across her book at the library.

Told in a series of essays, many of which were submitted as articles for ESPN and espnW, Kathryn shares her experiences as a representative of a very small nation (St. Kitts and Nevis) striving to keep up with the monoliths of European teams in the pursuit of Olympic qualifying points. Already in her thirties and slightly later to the sport than her competition, Bertine is determined to succeed. When told she "might" be able to make a break away from the peloton, she explains it this way:

"Might" is all I need to hear. I have built an emotional empire on might, this strange world that yields definitions of both strength and chance, as if it surreptitiously knows they're the same thing. I used to be paralyzed by Mights and Maybes...yet I knew in order to progress, I had to build an empire on might and crown myself the Empress of Maybe. Only then, I finally figured out, could I get where I wanted to go.

This kind of willpower is inspiring. I have never been athletic and I started my own cycling very late in the game, but I can build on might and maybe. I can keep pushing, even if I'll never race with the big girls.

Bertine gives a lot of insight into what the world of women's pro cycling Olympic qualifications are like. She describes lots of travel, home stays (bunking with a family in lieu of a hotel to save money), and she talks a lot of the disparity between women's and men's cycling. When asked what she thinks about Lance Armstrong's cheating, she responds with the names of five female pro cyclists that she says "deserve more attention and discussion than the question of whether Lance cheated." Bertine is a strong fighter for equity in women's cycling, advocating for women's events to be added to the major men's races, fairness in prize payouts and also in base pay, and in greater respect for the women's side of the sport.

When an article in Bicycling Magazine (who really should have known better) came out in 2011 ranking women's cycling's hottest racers, Bertine was aggravated. Not only was it kind of gross, but the article only showed how "hot" these women are while failing to list what awesome athletes they are. Bertine fixed it for them by listing those same women, along with three others she felt should be included: what what really made them outstanding cyclists. She calls it her list of "Watties" (a watt being the unit of measurement for the amount of energy expended in an athletic effort). It is a fantastic list and maybe the best part of the whole book. 

Bertine writes with humor and candor. She mentions that she never answers the question of if she has ever crashed out loud. She will nod her head, but is somewhat superstitious about saying anything in any way that the "gods of jinx" might hear. I can totally understand that! 

I really liked this book. I'll leave you with one last bit of inspiration I gained from it:

You don't have to get over your fear in order to do something. It's okay to bring the fear with you. just cut out its tongue first.