Team Major Taylor, Sigma Nu, Cutters highlight 54th running of men's race

It's been a long ride for Little 500 teams, and it's almost over. In less than 48 hours, the 2004 race will be finished and a new champion will be crowned, but not without a little stress and a lot of hard work. \nLast year's race was dominated by the traditional teams and riders who had logged four years on a bike. But since then, things have changed. While many of the same teams are dominating the track, others have emerged as top competitors. \nLast year's winner, Gafombi (the team's remaining rider, senior Jason Fowler, now rides for Cutters), and the 2002 winner, The Corleones, have both graduated, leaving the pack wide open for other teams to take the track. \nAnd they have.\nSigma Nu hasn't finished the race in the top 20 in the last few years, but 2004 marks its change. The team brought in a new coach this year and has stepped up its training, which paid off during qualifications. The team finished second, only two-tenths of a second behind last year's second place finisher and this year's pole winner, Team Major Taylor. But the team still has things to prove. \n"We obviously want to win," sophomore Eric Graebe said. "If you aren't out there to win, I don't know why you are out there. We are trying to turn our program around, so it means a lot to do well and prove ourselves to let people know we are here and we will be here for years to come."\nFor years, the one team that comes to many people's minds when speaking about Little 500 is the Cutters. Thanks to the 1979 movie "Breaking Away," Cutters and riding have gone hand-in-hand for years. This year, with the 25th anniversary of the movie, the pressure to do well has mounted for the team. \nSenior Cutters rider Chris Vargo said the attention the team has been getting and the significance behind the anniversary definitely makes the race more exciting. Cutters team alumni will be coming in for the race, and hometown fans around the country will be coming to Bloomington to celebrate with the team. \nBut the movie's anniversary isn't the only source of pressure for the team. After winning Team Pursuit and the overall spring series events, the team will receive the white jersey on race day. Despite its 10th-place starting position, Vargo said the team is confident it will place well in the end.\n"We've had confidence all along, so white jersey or not, we would be confident," Vargo said. "We are the marked team. People are going to be watching out for us and watching what we do."\nOther teams to watch on race day are the top five teams, which have all performed well during the spring series events. Team Major Taylor, which qualified in first place, is always a top contender, finishing the race in second last year and ninth in 2002. Next to Major Taylor in the first row of teams is Sigma Nu and ACR Cycling, which finished in the top five in Team Pursuit and had two of its four riders enter the semifinals in Miss-N-Out.\nOther top contenders are teams with a heavy racing tradition, including Alpha Tau Omega, which qualified fourth, sixth-place qualifier Phi Gamma Delta and Acacia, which is in ninth.\nDespite the final outcome of the race, senior ACR Cycling rider Eric Derheimer said the final days leading up to the race is a time to take everything in, have some quality time with the team and let the race come to them.\n"There is a lot of pressure to do well," Derheimer said. "You put so much time and effort into training, and it all comes down to one day. You just have to try to take your mind off that. Once it comes down to the race, it all changes." \n-- Contact staff writer Katie Schoenbaechler at kmschoen@indiana.edu.