Women's Little 500
The Women's Little 500 is a bicycle race held annually at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. The race is modelled after the men's Little 500. The race has been run the Friday before the men's race, since its conception in 1987. It consists of half the distance of the men's race: 100 laps around the quarter-mile cinder track at the Bill Armstrong Stadium. Racers usually compete in teams of four, but teams can be as few as two, as long as that was the number of team members with which they qualified for the race. These teams usually have a common bond such as living in the same residence hall or being members of the same sorority, or they simply are an independent group with common interests. Each team is only given two bikes on which to ride and therefore, must compete in a relay-style that is rare in other races.
The Purpose
Money raised by the event goes towards a scholarship fund for working IU students, and the race is a major social event on campus during the spring. The Women's race is just one of the several expansions added to the Men's Little 500 in order to create a week of celebration. Other events are the annual Little 50, a 50 lap running relay race and Alumni Races, which are held every 5 years. Other student celebrations during the weekend of the race have helped earn it the title of "The World's Greatest College Weekend," and it is known to be the busiest weekend of the year for the local police force. No longer seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong called the Little 500, which has raised more than $1 million in scholarship money, "the coolest event I ever attended."History
The inaugural Women’s Little 500 was held in 1988, in response to 4 members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority completing a successful qualifications run in the 1987 men’s event on their 3rd and final attempt. Their efforts were chronicled in an article in the New York Times. In the fall of 1987 two of the Theta riders considered either a second attempt to enter the men’s race in 1988 or starting a women’s Little 500, they chose the latter. These women Leeann Terhune and Martha Gillum found a receptive Indiana University Student Foundation, who along with the Indiana University Office of Women's Affairs agreed to support their effort.While the support was crucial, the task of gathering 33 teams fell to Leeann and Martha, who spent any spare time meeting with potential women riders. In the end they were going to have 31 teams at the first Women’s Little 500 Qualifications, an extraordinary accomplishment. The night before qualifications, 2 teams contacted Leeann to say they would be dropping out of the event. She and Martha combined those two teams into one. That “combined” team would end up being the winner of the first Women’s Little 500.
Eligibility
1. All students desiring to participate as a rider in the Little 500 must be a full-time undergraduate student enrolled at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University during the fall and spring semesters of the year of participation.2. Have a cumulative GPA of 2.00 or better
3. Students may only compete up to four times in a five-year period.
4. Students must be an amateur.
5. No substance abuse of any type is tolerated. If caught, you will not only have to deal with the consequences imposed by the university, but your team will also forfeit their eligibility in the race.
6. For a team to be eligible, at least one member must attend all race information meetings and turn in the final four cards with the names of the team's riders for that year. Also, all riders wishing to compete must complete their "rookie requirements."
Rules
When doing the race, there are of course a few rules.The Bike
Little 500 bikes are rather distinctive. They are single gear, coaster brake racing bicycles. There are two different versions of the bike: the men's and the women's. The only difference between the men's and women's bikes is the frame size; the men race on a 56 cm frame, the women's bikes are built on 54 cm frames. Men and women race on the same 46x18 gearing. Every year a new version of the bike is made and then two are given to each team. The cost of the bikes are, for the most part, covered in the team registration fees and race sponsorship money. At the end of the season, team's are given the option to keep their bikes or to sell them back to IUSF. The used bikes are then kept at the track and are rented out by those teams that do not have old bikes.The Exchange
This is one of the things that really make the race interesting. Because each team only has two bikes and four members, each member must perform at least one exchange during the course of the race. Though there are several different variations, there are two different types of exchanges.Man-to-Man
The first and most common type is a man-to-man exchange. There are two styles of man-to-man exchange: "dismount to mount" and the "ghost rider."Dismount-to-mount
Ghost Rider
Bike-to-Bike
The other type of exchange is known as a bike-to-bike exchange. The only reason that a team would use this type of exchange is if the team members are not all approximately the same height. More often than not, it is because one member of the team is shorter than the rest because most cyclists in the race are fairly tall. This exchange is far simpler than the other. The first rider only has to come in and tap the next rider's shoulder or arm and then the other racer can begin. While this is much easier than the other exchange, it is significantly slower because the second racer is starting from a dead stop, while riders performing the man-to-man exchange have some forward momentum.To make things a little more interesting, each team, no matter what type of exchange they are doing, has to perform their exchange in the distance of two pits. The action of slowing is not part of the exchange, but the first rider is not allowed to begin getting off the bike until one pit ahead of their team's and the second rider must have complete control of the bike by the end of the team's pit. For bike-to-bike exchanges, the second person CANNOT move until tagged by the first person and the first person MUST stop before end of her team's pit. Failure to do either of these things will result in a penalty for the team.
Series Events
The Little 500 is much more than just the race. There are also several series events associated with the race. These events are held for a few reasons. The first and foremost is for fun. The second reason is so that teams can scout out the competition and get a feel for that year's race field. And the final reason is so that all the members of a team, not just those competing in the actual race itself, can still participate and compete. There are four other series events outside of the race: Qualifications, ITTs, Miss-N-Out, and Team Pursuit.Qualifications
Qualifications, commonly known as "Quals," is the first and one of the most important series events. Qualifications is a four lap race around the track to see which team can get the fastest cumulative time. These times determine if a team qualifies to race in Little 500 and if so, then where in the field of the top 33 teams they will be placed. Each team is given three attempts to qualify. The reason for this is in case a team faults an exchange, then they still have two more chances to qualify. The way that a team can fault an exchange is if one of its members falls and takes the bike down with her, or the team does not perform the exchange in the given distance, which is marked by white lines on the track. Or, in the case of a bike-to-bike exchange, if the second rider starts to move before she is tagged or if the first rider does not stop the bike before the last white line. Teams can use as many as four riders or as few as two riders. But whatever number of riders a team uses to qualify is the fewest riders they can use for Little 500. Meaning that if a team qualifies with four people, then they must race with four people. But if they qualify using only three people, then they can use three or four people on the day of Little 500.According to the Indiana University Student Foundation website, "Qualifications day is often regarded as the most stressful day on the track, as only the fastest 33 teams will be allowed to enter the Little 500. Smooth bike exchanges and quick single lap speed are the marks of a successful qualification. "
ITTs
Individual Time Trials, known as ITTs, share some aspects with qualifications; both are four-lap sprints around the track, but individual time trials are performed individually. No more than four riders participate simultaneously in this test of both speed and sprint endurance. At the beginning of the trial, one rider is placed at each turn of the track, lined up with the start/finish line. Officials hold the bicycles in place until the starting signal is given, after which the riders accelerate from a complete stop and race around the track. It is possible to catch other riders on the track while racing, but drafting is prohibited — a rider caught drafting off another rider is automatically disqualified. Riders often measure their own abilities against others in time trials, and the overall fastest time wins the event.Miss-N-Out
It has been suggested by some that this is perhaps the most interesting of all the series events, including the race itself. In this event there are heats of 5–8 riders, depending on the number of riders signed up for the day. These heats are seeded according to the results of each rider's ITT. Riders are placed along the starting line in order from fastest to slowest and are then given one lap to get the position they want in the pack and to gain some speed. Once they cross the start/finish line again, the race begins. The riders race around the track and every time the pack crosses the start/finish line, the last one to cross is out and must leave the track. Riders keep racing until there are only three riders left. These three riders move on to the next round. This process continues until the final heat of 8. In this heat, riders continue to race and get out until you have the last three and then they commence a one lap full out sprint and the first, second, and third-place winners are determined by the order in which the riders cross the start/finish line. This is a great event because it really measures the skill of a rider, because in order to win, a rider must be more than just fast. If a rider hopes to win, she must also have good drafting skills, the ability to find good positioning, the intuition to know when to get out of the pack and sprint around the outside, and the endurance to be able to do this all day.The IUSF website describes the event as, "An exercise in pack riding and a test in tactics. Sometimes described as "musical chairs on a bike," Miss-N-Out is the most popular spectator series event."