Team Pursuit last of series

It’s only a short race against the clock, but Saturday’s Team Pursuit might be playing the role of Miss Cleo for next week’s Little 500.

The last of the Spring Series events at Bill Armstrong Stadium, Team Pursuit features two teams on the track racing 15-lap (men) and 12-lap (women) heats.

As for the results after Saturday’s event? No one would be surprised if they were very similar to the actual races next weekend.

“If you look at the top 10 in Team Pursuit, you can guarantee that those teams are going to be positioned well in the race to finish in a high spot,” Beta Theta Pi senior Erik Kiser said.

In fact, in the past decade, no Team Pursuit winner — men’s or women’s team — has finished lower than eighth in the race. In six of those eight Team Pursuit events (it was cancelled due to weather twice), the men’s and women’s winner finished in the top three in the race.

Five times since 2000, the men’s Team Pursuit winner repeated with a victory on race day.

The most common reason for this trend is that Team Pursuit is the only team-oriented Spring Series event.

“Team Pursuit just shows the depth of the team,” Black Key Bulls sophomore Stephen Mis said. “You might not have the fastest guy, but whoever wins Team Pursuit usually has the deepest team and can do a lot of damage on race day.”

Team Pursuit results are determined by the time of the team’s third-place rider, so drafting becomes important as team members seek to work together.

Phi Gamma Delta junior Ted Boeglin said the basic strategy for the event is still very simple.

“Our goal is to have it when we cross the line, every guy should be dead tired,” Boeglin said. “If you accomplish that, you’ve gone about as fast as you can go.”

But Boeglin also discussed the team’s more functional strategy for that top time. He emphasized that the team needs to keep solid pace lines and be able to work together in terms of pulling, or leading, the pack.

“It’s about balancing out the work,”  Boeglin said.

That might also be why Team Pursuit results often mirror race-day results — drafting and communication play an equally important role on race day.

“It’s more similar to the race,” Mis said. “You’re on the pace line for a lap, lap and a half, and then fall back. And that’s basic strategy come race time.”

For the women, Team Pursuit might also be about breaking a mini-trend. While the top teams do well in the race, a women’s team has not won Team Pursuit and the race in the same year since the 2000 Kappa Alpha Theta team.