Men hope race will be closer than last year’s

Every rider in Saturday’s Little 500 wants what senior Dodds House rider Chris Chartier has: a championship ring.\nWith the defending champion Alpha Tau Omega watching the race from the bleachers after failing to qualify, Dodds House is the most \nrecent team in this year’s race to have won a championship. Dodds won the race in 2005.\nChartier and teammate Daniel Houchens are two of the three riders in the race to have ridden for a championship team. Senior rider David Caughlin was a member of the 2004 championship Cutters team.\nThe only downfall to winning the race is that it puts extra pressure to win the following year, Chartier said.\n“The only burden I think it carries with it is ... losing after you’ve won,” he said. “It sucked a lot more than losing before I had won. It hurt me a lot more last year than it did my first year.”\nDodds House is one of the favorites to win the 57th annual intramural cycling along with the Cutters, Phi Kappa Psi, Black Key Bulls and Team Major Taylor. According to an unscientific poll of 33 riders by the Indiana Daily Student, most believe the Cutters are the favorite to win the race, with Dodds as the runner-up.\nThose results would mirror the final standings in the spring series, the Team Pursuit and the finals of Miss-n-Out, where Cutters rider Alex Bishop out-sprinted Chartier for the victory.\nRegardless of the final outcome, many riders expect this year’s race to be more exciting than last year’s, when the race was decided before the 100th lap as ATO rider Hans Arnesen lapped the field en route to a victory.\nLittle 500 Race Coordinator Matthew Ewing said fans should expect a closer race this year.\n“What Hans did was awesome,” Ewing said. “It was a feat that you stood there for 40 laps thinking, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ I think with this year’s race you’re going to have that for the entire race.”\nThe Cutters will wear the white jersey Saturday signifying their victory in the spring series events. \nCaughlin said the team likes its chances in the race but several teams could cross the finish line first.\n“These series events are good tests to see where you are at, and obviously we feel confident going into the race,” Caughlin said. “I’m sure other teams do too, but we’ve had a solid spring leading up to this, so we are happy about it.”\nStarting in the poll position, Phi Psi will wear the green jersey. Senior rider Erik Styacich said the team is excited to start the race in first place and added he could see the race come down to a sprint.\n“I think it’s going to be a close race,” he said. “There are a number of close teams that have separated themselves as favorites. I can definitely see a final sprint between two or three teams at the end.”\nIf there is a sprint for the checkered flag and those teams are the Cutters and Dodds, Chartier said he looks forward to a rematch of the Miss-n-Out final with Bishop.\n“If it comes down to me and Bishop, I have no problem shaking his hand with a couple laps to go and just going mano a mano and seeing who comes out on top this time,” Chartier said. “I’ll take him next time, and you can go ahead and put that down.”\n–Sports editor Michael Sanserino contributed to this report.