Ski Club women learn to race, form bike team

It isn’t uncommon for groups on campus to half-heartedly discuss forming Little 500 teams.

The thought normally gathers some attention but then stalls without much actual result.

Unlike many of the failed start-up teams, when IU Ski and Snowboard Club began tossing around the idea of forming a team, they followed through.

“At the beginning of the year, we were talking about how it’s always unfortunate that we never have anything to do around Little Five season,” Ski Club Captain Natlie Laser said. “When we started throwing the idea around, there was a big enough response that it worked.”

But Ski Club hasn’t just managed to bring together a team — it has found success. The rookie team qualified seventh with a time of 2:51.29, by far the best-placing rookie team.

The results have come as somewhat of a surprise for the riders. The team of Laser, Ashley King, Alex Benigni and Megan Huibregtse combine for zero years of competitive cycling experience.

Huibregtse didn’t even have her Little 500 bike until January.

Because of the lack of experience, the team knew if it wanted to make a Little 500 run the right way they would need to commit to training on the bikes.

That meant while the Ski Club made a trip to Aspen, Colo., the cycling team stayed home.

“We knew we had to stay,” Laser said. “We knew it would be worth it.

“With not very much track time at all, we needed to be here if we wanted to be serious about it.”

So while other members of Ski Club were out on the slopes, Ski Club Cycling was training on the bikes around Bloomington.

Coaching and other teams, such as Teter, have been helpful to Ski Club Cycling as it has prepared, but still, the struggles of being a rookie team have been present.

King said the first time she was out on the track during practice with other teams around her was one of the scarier parts of learning how to race.

“It’s like riding in a traffic jam going 100 miles an hour,” King said. “There is so much sensory input that we didn’t know how to do.”

But after the weeks of preparation and practice, King said all four members have become at home on the track.

“It was crazy at first, but now we feel really comfortable,” she said.

For a rookie team with no competitive cycling experience, qualifying for the race was a big accomplishment.

But now that Ski Club Cycling has proven itself in qualifications to start on the inside of row three, the team members are focused on exceeding their increasing race
expectations.

“I think before quals, we thought that breaking into the top 10 would be goal for us and, still, that would be amazing,” King said.

“But after we saw what we could do in Quals, I think we can even raise our expectations. But for us, I think anything in the top 10 would just be awesome, but we’ll see at the race.”