Teams tight up front

With less than 36 hours until the 2003 men's Little 500, riders are starting to feel the pressure of competition. Come Saturday, they will be hoping months, and, in many cases, years, of training will pay off with the championship title. \nThe 2003 field of teams is packed full of competitive and experienced riders. The top five qualifying teams; Fiji, Team Major Taylor, Corleones, Gafombi and ACR Cycling, all contain talented riders who have dominated the spring series events this year and in years past. \n"Everyone has prepared themselves well," said IU Student Foundation assistant director and Little 500 coordinator Alex Ihnen. "Typically the winner of the race comes from the first three rows. We also have two teams farther back are very capable of winning, but just for whatever reason are not starting up near the front of the field. But there are always about a dozen teams that you can pick that have chance. It just has to go their way."\nFor last year's winner, The Corleones, everything went their way in 2002. Even though the team had a close one second finish in front of Gafombi, the team was a heavy favorite throughout the race. \nAs the hours until race day tick away, the four returning riders are starting to realize defending their title might be harder than they thought.\n"I didn't feel pressure before, but now I am," senior Daniel Burns said. "It would be really cool to win it back to back but extremely difficult."\nThe Corleones difficult task hinges on the performance of nearly a dozen highly talented and prepared teams.\nOne of the biggest favorites is Fiji, who has already proved to be a major competitor this year. The team won the pole position by finishing first in qualifications. They went on to steal the spring series and have numerous individual victories along the way. The team only returns two riders from their 2002 sixth place finishing team, but what they lack in experience they make up for in confidence.\n"I think one thing is we have a big tradition at out house," senior Adam Shields said. "We are continuing the legacy by doing well in the spring series. Having the pole gives us confidence, but you never know what's going to happen."\nAnother tough competitor that has proved themselves through the spring series is Gafombi. The team's leading rider, senior John Grant, racked up victories and strong performances this year. He took first place in Individual Time Trials and Miss-N-Out, and the team took first in Team Pursuit. \n"I think Gafombi is going to be our hardest competition," Burns said.\nThe last pieces of the puzzle are Team Major Taylor and ACR Cycling. Major Taylor finished a disappointing ninth last year after a wreck early on, but the team returns two riders from last year's team and proved to be strong competition in the series events.\nRounding out the top five is ACR Cycling, formally Sigma Phi Epsilon, who finished fourth in the 2002 race. The team had a scare Tuesday, when senior Mark Downing went down in an unavoidable wreck. Downing was a pivotal rider in ACR's line-up, finishing eighth in ITTs. \nDowning broke his collar bone in the wreck, but was cleared by doctors Thursday to ride. Downing said the injury won't have too much of an effect on the team or their strategy for the race. He said he'll do anything to ride in the race.\n"I'm going to suck it up and ride," Downing said. "You cut off my arm, and I would still ride."\nGood health will be important to each team, but over and over each rider has said the most important aspect of the race is luck.\n"To win this race you have to have skill and luck," Downing said. "I think we have skill. I just hope we have a little bit of luck"