Commuting makes it tough

Training for Little 500 can be a hard task for any rider, but living nearly 200 miles away from your team can pose problems that even the best teams would have trouble with.\nEven though he is not physically training with Teter, senior Michael Choinacky hasn't let it stop him from working hard, despite his obvious disadvantages.\n"I've only been to Bloomington twice since February. I'm in South Bend right now," Choinacky said. "Training has been hard with being away. It's been different because I haven't had opportunities to ride with the team, but I know they have been working hard. We all know what we have to do, so in that aspect it hasn't been hard."\nBoth of the trips Choinacky has taken to Bloomington have proved successful.\nIn the first trip, Teter qualified fifth for the race without the experience of exchanging the bike as a team. The second time, Choinacky placed 11th in Individual Time Trials.\n"Before quals I was thinking our lack of handoffs could hurt us," freshman rider Joshua Beisel said. "Then I was told that handoffs are over-rated, and I found out that in fact they are." \nThe lack of team riding experience hasn't hurt the team, which consists of two veteran riders and two rookies. Though Choinacky is spending the semester at home completing a student-teaching requirement, the team agrees the time spent together before the semester was what it needed to begin its climb to the top.\nChoinacky rode for Collins his freshman year but moved to Teter and joined the team his sophomore year. He sustained an injury a month before the 2000 race, leaving him unable to compete. Choinacky was healthy and back for last year's race, and his team snagged second place behind Phi Delta Theta. \nChoinacky's experience has proven to help the team.\n"I learned more about riding in the first month of school from Mike than I have learned in the past eight months," Beisel said. "Every day we went out he would continually tell me what I should be doing. I was completely new to the sport and he was a great guide."\nMissing riding and the team atmosphere hasn't hindered the team to a great extent. Choinacky said the first time he took the track since last year was to ride in qualifications, in which the team placed fifth.\nSenior rider Patrick Gilbert, a rookie, said the strong work ethic from Choinacky is one of the things the team attributes its success to.\n"If I had to describe him in one word, it would be tough. He's a competitor," Gilbert said. "His competitive sprit has rubbed off on us, and hopefully it'll rub off in the race"