Christine Bertram: Celebrating Team Spirit

 

Christine Bertram enjoys a lot of things about Zwift Racing League, but her favorite is the team spirit of her WattFabrk WattChicaaas team. These ladies will support each other in any way they can. They will often join the team chat even when they’re not racing, just to cheer each other on!

“Everyone is incredibly positive,” Bertram says. “Everyone wants to do their best. No one wants to let other people down, and they just help us to be the best team we can be. We all have different talents and roles.”

Zwift Racing League, hosted by Zwift and WTRL, is a seasonal race series with a team-based format. This encourages teammates to work together and allows different types of riders to take on different roles. In points races, participants can earn points for their team by going for a high finish placement, or they can target sprint and climb segments along the route. During team time trials, teams race against the clock to reach the finish together as fast as possible.

“As random strangers that got together to do online racing, we actually are pretty close at a personal level,” she says. “We know what happens in each other’s lives, and we support each other.”

To learn more about WattFabrik, visit the team’s website

Mishaps and Motivation

Bertram joined Zwift in late 2019. For the first year and a half, she was just riding with friends. Then she started racing WTRL team time trials with some men from the Zwift Riders Germany (ZRG) team.

“At that stage, I said, ‘Guys, I really love you, but if there’s ever a women’s team I’d rather ride with the women,” Bertram says. “I could barely hang onto their coattails… They were so much stronger than me.”

Later, someone approached her and asked if she wanted to join a women’s squad for the Zwift Racing League. That’s how she joined Team WattFabrik and started racing with the WattChicaaas.

“The women’s races are far chattier,” she says. “There’s a lot more socially going on beforehand. We always meet up and have random girl chat, and we talk about wine and beer and bikes and just what’s been happening during the week.”

That camaraderie really helps when things go wrong – and the WattChicaaas are no stranger to things going wrong.

“We have never had a season where everything went without a problem,” Bertram says, laughing.

For one race, a few team members had fallen ill, so only five racers started instead of the maximum of six. One team member was in the starting pen just to watch the race and support the others.

Everything went fine until two racers encountered technical problems. Now, they were in danger of not even having enough finishers!

The teammate at the start line ran upstairs, put her cycling kit on, and started the race 15 minutes late. She finished last, but she made sure the minimum of four racers crossed the line.

Riders earn at least one point for their team as long as they finish the race and their team has enough finishers. This means anyone can contribute, even at the back of the field.

Before another race, a WattChicaaas member named Sue had emergency knee surgery. There were only five starters, and the team needed every point it could get. Sue got on the bike and pedaled around the course, including the Innsbruck KOM climb, with just one leg!

“We had showers one after another, so somebody was with Sue the whole time” in the team chat, Bertram says. “She finished the race one-legged and got us a point!”

Christine in Zwift

Part of the Family

Bertram grew up in Germany and later moved to the UK, which is where she lived when she first started cycling regularly. In 2018, she moved back to Germany, away from the friends she had been riding with there.

“Zwift has actually given me the opportunity to still ride with my friends on Sunday,” she says. “We can set up a meetup on Sunday mornings, be on the bike together, ride on Zwift, and have a chat. We’ve had birthday rides, where friends from all over the world essentially jumped in, rode around, and chatted. It’s stuff that wouldn’t have happened, because it would’ve been more effort to coordinate and get going.”

Now, she uses Zwift to connect with friends she has met both on and off the platform. Most of the members of the WattChicaaas live in Germany, but they’re spread out all across the country. Bertram has met a few of them as she traveled for vacations and races.

“We’ve started to actually have chapters within the club,” she says. “There’s a north Germany meetup, an east Germany meetup, and one in the region where I live.”

When a rider improves enough to upgrade categories, she has to race with another ZRL squad. But she never leaves the WattChicaaas.

“They always stay part of the family, even though they’re part of a new team,” says Bertram.

Another rider comes onboard, and the upgraded rider stays in team chat to continue the support and encouragement.

“Without ZRL I would’ve probably never met the other girls I’m riding with, or any of the other people I’ve talked to on Zwift,” says Bertram. “It’s just a great community. You find a lot of support and a lot of nice people.”

Want to sign up for Zwift Racing League? Check out WTRL’s website for more information. To find a team, you can post in the WTRL Zwift Racing League Facebook group.