Interview Nina Berton

Every year a new generation of young lionesses steps up to the biggest teams. One of these hungry cyclists is Nina Berton. The 21 years old rider joins Ceratizit WNT and is more then motivated to prove herself on her own terrain. The rider from Luxembourg dreams to bring another victory in the Ardennes to the Grand Duchy. She aims to represent the national & team colours in the biggest races and that with an 'unstoppable' desire to discover new challenges and conditions.  Luxembourg is a tiny country that already delivered many great cyclists through the years. Get to know one of the ambassadors of their newest generation. 

You moved up to a team with a strong reputation. What are your ambitions with Ceratizit-WNT?

Yes, I was super happy to get the news that I will get the opportunity to ride for the current best Women’s Continental team. I have a 2 year contract which shows me that the team puts trust in my development and this is a huge motivation for my own ambitions. Personally I want to show in the next two seasons that I can keep up with the world’s best riders. Especially at the hard races like Strade Bianche and the Ardennes Classics I would like to perform well. Another big goal this season is the Ceratizit Festival Elsy Jacobs, which is my home race. There I would really like to show myself. Then later in the season the U23 Nationals, European Championships and World Championships are the main events where I hope to get some good personal results in ITT and on the road. Other than that I just want to grow together with the team in order to become the best possible rider. I can learn a lot from my teammates and I can really profit from the professional environment in the team. Together as a team we want to perform well and to collect some UCI points in order to save a spot in the World Tour for next year. So I’m also happy to take on the helper role in order to get those team results. :)

You were part of the Andy Schleck team last year. How did you feel when you heard about the team's end?

When I heard that the team would stop in 2023 I was kind of shocked because I wasn’t expecting it. This put me a bit under pressure because I knew I had to look for a new team and in order to do so I would need to get some good results. After all I already wanted to change teams before I even knew that the team would stop because I felt like I needed a new environment to continue to grow as a rider. However now I didn’t have the safety option anymore to stay in my old team if it wouldn’t work out to find a new one. I tried to stay positive and to take this situation as a motivation to show myself like at the World Championships for example. At the end I’m really glad it worked out with Ceratizit WNT after a season with a lot of question marks and unknowns.

Despite the small size, Luxembourg delivered some great cyclists, is cycling the most popular sport in the country?

I would say that Cycling is one of the most popular sports in Luxembourg as we already had some great riders like the Schleck brothers who delivered amazing results in the Tour de France. I guess that these kind of riders in a way inspired the country to get more involved in Cycling because they realized that we can perform well even though we are a small nation. Moreover the conditions in Luxembourg are quite good to train, as we have a good landscape with a bit of everything (hills, flat roads,…). I guess for small countries like Luxembourg it’s easier to help the cyclists to develop gradually in a sustainable way without overstraining them.

 

You also did some cyclocross this Winter. Would you like to do this discipline more often in the future or do you see it in function of the road season?

I clearly see Cyclocross in function of the road season. For me it is a great preparation because you work on your technical skills and it helps to improve your power/VO2 Max. However this year I realized that I really love this discipline and I would like to do some more Cyclocross racing in the next seasons. Now with my new team I also have the opportunity to work on a good race program so that there is a good balance between my Cyclocross and my Road season without me burning out because of overload. So I guess next winter you will see me more often on my CX bike in international races. But the main focus will always be on the road.

What does your race scheldule for 2023 look like?

My 2023 race schedule will be quite packed if I compare it to my last season. I already did my first race on the 29. January which is very new for me to start this early. Next I will do the stage race “Setmana Ciclista Valenciana” before going over to the Belgian opening weekend with Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Hageland and Samyn. After that I will hopefully get to do Strade Bianche. Moreover I will surely get to ride the Ceratizit Festival Elsy Jacobs in Luxembourg and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. For the rest of the season I have already a provisional plan but we will see until then whether we will change things up or not.

What or who inspired you to do cycling?

My family was always into cycling. No one of my parents raced themselves but on holidays we often went for mountain-bike rides and we went to watch the Tour de France at the Alpe d’Huez. So I just grew up riding my bike for fun since I was really small. At the end my younger brother was the one who inspired me to start racing because he started to ride cycling races when he was 7 or 8 years old. When I saw him doing this I also wanted to try it and it turned out that it went quite well and I really enjoyed it.

If you could win one big race, which one would you choose?

If I could win one big race I would chose Liège-Bastogne-Liège for sure! I love the Ardennes Classics and it is a type of racing that really suits my rider profile. But since we did the course recon of Strade Bianche in December, this one also really caught my heart and is at the top of my list.

Which song can motivate you ahead of an important race?

“Unstoppable” by The Score is a good one which always reminds me to keep pushing hard no matter what happens during a race.