Little 500

Most current and past students of Indiana University will tell you the love Little 500 - "The World's Greatest College Weekend," but I doubt they could tell you anything about the actual bicycle race which takes place during the weekend.  I'm not sure where the tradition came from to turn the weekend into a party weekend, but year after year, the population of Bloomington probably triples from all the people who come to take part in the festivities, mostly to attend outrageous fraternity parties where concerts headlining artists like Snoop Dogg, Luda, and DMX take place.

I hadn't really heard of Little 5 until I was at the MS150 in Texas in 2004, and at the fairgrounds, we watched "Breaking Away," a movie from the late '70s about the bicycle race and how the Bloomington townies - Cutters, as they are called, decide to form a team and win the race.  I thought the movie was pretty cool, so when I got to Bloomington in 2007, I decided to find out a way to be involved.  I found a random email address on the IU Student foundation website (hosts and coordinators of the race), and asked to be a volunteer.  I didn't hear anything until about a week before the race, and then I got an official email, thanking me for volunteering and that I needed to be at the women's race early on Friday to be briefed on my role as a pit judge.  I had no clue what pit judge even meant.  

Well, it turned out to be quite the role.  I was assigned 3 teams to judge and I watched from the infield, basically just making sure they make proper exchanges, communicate any info during the race to the coach, nothing too bad.  The best part is that judges get to wear a headset and hear everything that the race directors are talking about, and the commentary is way better than what is being said on the PA to the audience.  

2010 was my 3rd race to volunteer. My dear sweet friend, Sarah, came out for her second time, and we had such a great time on the infield with the insider's point-of-view.  Since the field is predominantly Greek and I'm not affiliated with a Greek organization at IU, I cheer for the Independent teams.  Namely, the Cutters.  Not because they always win, but because my first experience with L5 was the movie.  The Cutters don't have a women's team, so I cheered for my residence hall, Teter.  Both Teter and the Cutters have a long history of winning teams.  Because they are independents, they have the ability to recruit all sorts of riders, hold try-outs, and equip themselves with the best teams.  The Teter women are lead by junior Caitlin Van Kooten.  Caitlin placed first at individual time trials (ITTs).  She's awesome.  She led her team to victory on Friday with such ease.  They rode smart, stayed out of the crashes (two really bad ones, 4 total broken collar bones), and it was a refreshing victory after coming in second to Pi Phi last year.  

I love the women's race.  It gets me pumped up for the men's race.  The women are great, but the competition doesn't exist the same for them as it does the men.  The men's race is a totally different playing field, there's not much fear, and they ride hard and fast.  In the final laps there were still 6 teams on the final lap.  Junior Eric Young rode for the Cutter's and by the end he turned it on.  Their big threat in the end were the Delts, who had a crash going into the final lap on a bad exchange.  Young took the lead by about half a lap.  It was a great finish and overall a good race, despite bad weather.  

Here's a little taste of it, the video is from 2008, but it's a really good one: