A Family Curse Lifted

After leading his team, The Corleones, to victory Saturday in the 52nd running of the men's Little 500 race, senior Daniel Burns credited his older brother and friends for pushing him to victory.\n"My brother got me started on riding," Burns said. "I rode with him in the 2000 race; he was a fifth-year and I was a sophomore. I became good friends with all his friends and they all kept pushing me on, pushing me on. I guess I can attribute my victory to him more than anyone else. They kept pushing me all the way, all the old riders kept pushing me."\nThe history of the Burns' family riding in the race dates back to Burn's brother, Matt, riding in the race starting in 1997. Matt rode for four years for Sigma Alpha Epsilon, but never claimed a Little 500 title. \nBurns' teammate, senior Luke Isenbarger, said many people talked about the Burns' curse that wouldn't allow anyone from the Burns family win the race. \n"After we won, I was so happy for the team, but I was especially happy for Dan," Isenbarger said. "His brother didn't get a victory when he rode and the people have said that there was the Burns curse and I was so happy that Dan could break the curse."\nThe confidence and explosive energy Burns possessed on the track provided a high entertainment value for the spectators and his team throughout the race. Nearing the end of the race, with an almost two-lap lead over the majority of the competition, Burns stood along the sidelines with his teammates cheering on the Corleone rider still on the track. \nSmiling and making faces as his teammates wizzed past him, he quickly got the crowd and his fellow teammates cheering louder than any of the others in Bill Armstrong Stadium. \n"We always have energy and try to stay focused," Burns said. "But when you see something unfold like that you can't help but get pumped up. It was a fun race to watch and everyone was working hard."\nSpeculation that Burns would return for another year of riding and a fifth year of school was mentioned when the team won. Burns confirmed the rumors were true and looked to the future of the team. \n"Yeah I still have some classes to finish up. I don't think we will change what we do for preparation for next year," Burns said. "I think the two guys that are rookies will work harder this summer. Until you have ridden in the race you don't know how much you have to train and you can't tell how much you haven't trained until you lose."\nBurns and fellow cyclist, senior Phi Gamma Delta rider Todd Cornelius, met through cycling and became roommates after developing a friendship on and off the track. \nCornelius said the two riders have similar personalities and live similar lives due to cycling. Cornelius attributed Burns' success on the track to Burns' colorful personality and said that his aggressive riding got him far in Saturday's race. \n"He's definitely off the deep end and if you want to be good at cycling and Little 500 you have to be," Cornelius said. "He's the backbone of his team and they have a team four people deep. They have really strong kids and I think that Dan having the crazy colorful personality he has, when something happens for the good of the team, he gets fired up and they see that in him and it fires them up as well."\nWhether Burns helped the team to their victory doesn't matter as Burns stressed that the team all contributed to the winning performance. Burns said the goals of the team had been met and they were all happy with their performance.\n"I had the most experience out of everyone on the team, but everyone else was very determined and hard working. We kept saying that we didn't care if we won or lost. As long as we left everything out on the track, we would be happy with the race and we are"