GULF WEEKLY -
In a stellar show of poised persistence and gutsy grit, Bahrain resident and cyclist Casie Pittman has raised £10,000 (BD5,097) for UK blood cancer charity Cure Leukaemia at Tour de France Femmes this month.
The athlete from Saar had to drop out of the race last year after she fractured her pelvis in a riding accident just four weeks before the event. However, that only strengthened her resolve to participate again, as she peddled 1,175 km with around 18,000 meters of climbing.
The 37-year-old was one among 19 amateur female cyclists, who together raised over £253,000 (around BD129,000) for the cause.
The Tour de France Femmes, part of the UCI Women’s World Tour’, is an annual, multi-stage professional road cycling race for women in France, and features elite female cyclists competing over multiple stages of varying terrain – from flat sprints to challenging mountain climbs. The winner earns the iconic yellow jersey.
“This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” the Bahrain resident of 13 years told GulfWeekly.
“I have been waiting for a full year to finally participate but it has been worth it. The beauty of this event is that it isn’t a race but a group of amateur women rallying together to ride the exact same route as the pros, a day before them, all to raise money for kids battling blood cancer. The stages were long and hard but the views and climbs were incredible,” she added.
While the experience was exhilarating, it was preceded by hard work in the months leading up to the race. Not to forget, healing from the accident. The full-time teacher could get her training done only in the afternoon after school and woke up early on the weekends to get her longer rides in.
“We are so blessed in Bahrain to have a cycling track we can train at. As it got closer to the summer, there were times because of my schedule that I needed to squeeze in some rides in the early hours before work. Training for the mountains while living in Bahrain was difficult as well. I spent many hours riding up and down Al Areen and sometimes used the indoor training platform Zwift to replicate the climbs,” she explained.
However, Casie was determined to participate. Riding at the Tour de France has been a dream of hers.
“It’s only been a few years since the women’s race, the Tour de France Femmes, began (2022). As an amateur, the chances of being able to participate in it are slim, but participating in The Route’s Tour de France Femmes gives us a chance to experience the same route as the pros all while raising money for a good cause,” noted the American expatriate, who has been cycling for eight years and competes often.
In the past, the triathlete has completed several half and full Ironman races. She switched her focus to cycling during the Covid pandemic and has since entered races in the region and also when she travels back to the US.
“Doing this event gave much more purpose to my training. When you do a race, you earn your medal or trophy and put it on a shelf to collect dust. But doing an event like this leaves an impact that goes far beyond the finish line. The money we raised as a team will support so many families whose kids are battling blood cancer and it means so much to have been a part of that,” she said.
Blood cancer is a term that is used to describe many different types of the disease that can affect your blood, bone marrow or lymphatic system.
Globally more than one million people receive a blood cancer diagnosis every year, and around 40,000 in the UK.
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