Column: Departure of stars improves Little 500

There is no Eric Young. There is no Caitlin Van Kooten. This year’s Little 500 is about the team, and that is how the race is supposed to be.

During the past few years, a few riders who far exceeded the skill and talent of other riders in the field have dominated the Little 500.

There was little doubt in anyone’s mind last year that both Teter and Cutters would win the Little 500.

None of this will be the case this year. Yes, there are a few notable riders, but not one who will be able to ride the majority of the race for his or her team.

Little 500 Qualifications was proof of this.

The teams as a whole improved. Each rider on the teams became faster, and the times as a whole became faster and closer together.

Qualifications in 2012 helped to show this could be anyone’s race. Beta Theta Pi took the pole with a time of 2:21.05. That is four seconds faster than Sigma Nu’s pole this past year, but that wasn’t the most interesting comparison in the two years’
final times.

In the men’s 2011 qualifications, just fewer than 15 seconds were between the pole time and the final qualifier. This year, it was about 11 seconds that separated pole and final qualifier.

That could make for a much faster race for all of the teams this year.

The winner of the race will be the team whose members can work together the best and work with the others in the field to stay safe on the track.

This year’s Little 500 will take the race back to the roots and the fundamentals on which it was developed.

The first races weren’t developed to showcase one rider. The race was developed to let student organizations compete together and ride for the pride, not for a potential
pro-cycling contract.

I’m sure that, within the next few years, another group of riders will come up that blows other competitors out of the water, and again we will see a race that basically has a winner before it begins.

Until that happens, let’s enjoy what we have this year. Get riding, Bloomington. Twenty-three days and counting.