Cutters’ Bishop, Teter’s Rieke capture Miss-n-Out victories

With three-fourths of a lap remaining, Cutters rider Alex Bishop all but wrapped up his second consecutive Miss-n-Out victory.\nAlthough Bishop was joined on the track with two of the fastest sprinters in the field – Dodds House rider Chris Chartier and Phi Kappa Psi rider Erik Styacich – he won the race by getting to Turn 1 first. \nWhile some might wonder how the race can be decided so soon on the final lap, the nature of the track at Bill Armstrong Stadium means it is unlikely a rider will lose a lead if he gets to the turn first, Bishop said.\n“The last lap is so fast, and ... if you beat everyone to Turn 1 and you are doing a (31-second lap), you pretty much have the race won,” he said.\nBishop had to fight off a push by Chartier down the front stretch to keep his lead into the first turn.\n“I was watching him coming out of Turn 4 out of the corner of my eye,” Bishop said. “I saw him coming up and I said, ‘Oh, I gotta get going now.’”\nThe charge came on the heels of a neutral lap, which gave the final three riders of the competition a chance to rest before a final sprint to the finish.\n“I tried to take the top because I wanted to lead it all the way out,” Chartier said. “Alex is a strong enough rider, and he probably could have taken me anyways, but I knew that would have given me a much higher percentage of winning it.”\nBishop made his charge to the final seemingly without effort. \nRegardless of the final spring series’ outcome, Chartier said, the Cutters showed they have the power to win a final sprint come race day.\n“I think the Cutters proved (they were the best in the sprint) today,” he said. “Definitively, the Cutters showed they had the best sprinter, and that’s Alex Bishop.”\nFor the women, Teter rider Sarah Rieke claimed her second spring series title with a Miss-n-Out championship, but the junior couldn’t be entirely happy with the victory. While holding a narrow lead over Rieke late during the final lap Cycledelics rider Pam Loebig’s bike chain fell off.\n“Who knows what would have happened after Turn 4,” Rieke said. “She was in front so she could have won. I was drafting so who knows if I would have sprinted around. But she’s a great rider and she deserved a fair race, and I’m really sad that she didn’t get to finish it.”\nHad she held on, it would have been Loebig’s first ever spring series victory.\n“It is definitely disappointing,” Loebig said. “I don’t want to say that I would have had it, but I was feeling great and I felt like I still had some left in me. All of a sudden, I felt my bike crank a little loud and then there was no resistance.”\nRieke led Loebig and Kappa Alpha Theta’s Brittany Mahoney at the beginning of the last lap. After Turn 2, Loebig started her sprint and, after accidentally bumping Rieke, she catapulted to the front of the pack. \n“I was feeling pretty good and I had some in me, so I didn’t want to wait long,” she said. “I decided coming out of (Turn) 2 that I was going to go into the wind and go to till the end.”\nRieke was just glad the two didn’t crash after they bumped. Once Loebig took the lead, Rieke had to play catch-up. She picked up the pace coming down the back stretch and pulled even with Loebig’s back tire between Turns 3 and 4. That’s when Loebig had the mechanical failure. \n“She was going to finish it,” Rieke said of Loebig. “She looked great, I’m just sad her chain broke and she didn’t get the chance to.”