While I’m no longer in Bloomington, it doesn’t mean this site can’t still live on. Several of you on here are passionate about Little 500 from a distance, and I’m included in that group now, too.
I’ll still try to deliver the highest quality content I can (and yes, I’m planning to be back in Bloomington in April), but I also know several people are looking for a site just to talk about the teams and riders and what’s going on. I want that to be here at 33to1.
So, while I won’t be live tweeting or regularly posting updates from this weekend’s events in all likelihood, feel free to use this post to share thoughts and results on the Fall Cycling Series.
For those unaware, there are ITTs going on at Bill Armstrong Stadium on Friday night, Street Sprints on Kirkwood on Saturday afternoon and Cyclocross Sunday afternoon in the tailgate fields. For a full entry list of contestants, visit the IUSF site here.
Now, let’s get to talking!
33to1 
Maybe if BKB wasn’t the only team that knew how to taper they would have some competition…
Tapering for fall series? I thought the Hilly Hundred was the event everyone tapers for in the fall ?!?
#winthehilly = #wintherace
Yeah, too bad the Kutters weren’t registered to show them how to ride….. lols
SKI CLUB GONNA MESS ALL DA BITCHES UP. DEY GOT DEMSELVES SUM MEAN BITCHES.
Sooo about that fall series recap? Also, who is Scott McClary?
Just heard about the new post today, thanks for keeping 33-1 going and congrats on the success with The Goshen News, Robby!
This stuff about Scott is garbage. Scott is a good guy, a talented cyclist, and a great member of riders council. It’s disappointing that someone would say otherwise just because they’re worried about another team.
People who treat other riders like that don’t represent Little 500 or Indiana University. If they put there names by what they said they would be ashamed of themselves, and they should be.
Having said that, FIJI is rolling deep this year! tons of rookies and guys from the house stepping up too!
For Sure, Fiji Should Have 4 Talented, Really Stronger Riders Again.
Well said…. FIJI Is irrelevant regardless
Even if that’s the case this year, it’s all about laying the groundwork, especially with fraternity teams.
Having involved underclassmen and support from your house is a huge part of long-term success
FIJI has depth, and that’s something that can keep them in the mix this year.
Don’t mistake numbers for depth. You can have 13 guys and not necessarily have a deep team. Hopefully, they can rebound with a fresh crop of guys. The race is better when teams with history that haven’t had a lot of recent success (Phi Psi, Fiji, Dodds, and Acasia?) are in the mix.
Very True Kleenex, teams need a combination of experience and numbers, but it’s certainly doable for a team to start fresh and make an impact. look at Beta Last year.
Re: Dodds house, while it would be great to see a classic powerhouse in the mix, front flips are pretty awesome too!
Front flips are great. Lying on the track like a big douche afterwards is not however. Happy thanksgiving!
^I like to think he saved it with that sweet log roll into the gutter.
Hope everyone had a good break and made sure to let 3 or more of your friends that you went on the rollers once!
Track season is about to begin! Let’s get some chatter going.
Who are the top 5 guys teams this year? Who is the darkhorse?
What’s going on with the women’s race for the top 5 teams?
Is anyone going to protest the crystal clear rule violations that surround Tabitha and her new cherry picked team? Or are girls too scared of her to protest?
For the men, it has to be BKB, Beta, Phi Delts again along with Cutters and Delts. Darkhorse is Sig Eps and Sigma Nu. BKB will prove to be too strong and will ride away clear with 40 to go after an unorganized chase with the pack’s 3rd and 4th riders.
For the women Tabitha’s team of her and 2 riders from previous teams and possibly a 4th combine to form a dangerous team that will run away with it in the last 5 laps. Theta will be strong but it’s tough to repeat and Teter and AXO finally looks to be having a rebuilding year after graduating 2 of their top 3 riders and Kelsey for AXO. Tabitha will follow out the last exchange from Theta and keep going is my prediction.
remind us all again who exactly team phoneix has that is so worthy of a rules violation…. didn’t think so. Also, good luck to Teter, who will probably be wearing white on race day despite not having a sprinter. Good luck with that.
Are rules violations based on the strength of the team? Is that what you’re saying?
It’s the same rule that banned Teter’s rider from racing last year. Exactly the same. Phoenix didn’t do anything wrong.
Care to clarify on the rules violation made by #risingfromthecinders ? Hard to get a straight answer
Isn’t Team Phoenix Tabitha and bunch of mid tier at best riders? I don’t see what the controversy surrounding that team is all about. This isn’t the 70’s where frats were just using residence halls as feeder systems and plucking the best riders. Team Phoenix seems consist with how many new independent teams form. Individuals who have eligibility for a variety of reasons come together to create a new team. Definitely not a superpower, just a handful of girls trying to create a new tradition. NBD
For the bros,I wouldn’t count out the SNU guys. You have your preseason favorite but a favorite usually emerges throughout the spring series and that team usually has the best chance at winning on raceday. I heard Luke Momper is trying to set the record for most laps in a race.
Snu’s gonna have a hard time winning when their yolked up roid raged coaches are about to murder the riders after yet another botched exchange… like clockwork.
Beta is the favorite in my opinion. They return all 4 riders as well as the winner of ITTs and miss n out.
Top 5 is Beta, PDT, BKB, Sig Ep, Delts. I would put a pretty big gap between BKB and Sig Ep though, the first three teams are a tier above the rest.
SNU will be solid and will probably have a good showing at spring series but lack of experience will lead to untimely wrecks that put them out of the race.
Other teams to watch are SAE and CUTTERS.
This is pretty wide open though, plenty of top teams graduated multiple guys and no clear favorite has really solidified themselves. This will inevitably change with spring series and I wouldn’t be suprised if a rider from the second tier (Momper, Torrence, Krahulik) has a great season and is able to keep their team in the running despite having a weaker team.
Nice post….but I don’t see BETA as the favorite. Craig was impressive all spring, until he crashed. He’s not intimidating anyone with his slender frame. Eric Young = intimidating; Hans = intimidating; Craig = not intimidating. What’s the benefit of returning 4 riders if the 4th isn’t that great? I do like BETA though, solid group of guys.
Second tier riders…… Momper isn’t elite, Torrance’s best L5 year ever is gonna wind up being his FRESHMAN year. Andy is the best bet out of that group.
Since when does slender have absolutely anything to do with anything? If the Rock was on Beta racing, you would be intimidated and not able to beat him? How stupid. What I intimidated you about Hans? His blond hair? If you’re fast, you’re fast.
who is the rock? Intimidating = I know I can’t beat you in a sprint. If you’re fast you’re fast, if you’re fast and you can’t handle a bike then you’re not the “best, fastest rider on the track” as quoted by AXS TV.
I think the only stupid person is the one suggesting the rock would be eligible to ride L5.
Indiana, Are you living under a Rock? You’re saying slender riders aren’t intimidating yet he won both ITT’s and Miss n Out and was in good position when he crashed. You know who else crashed in Little 5? Hans. And Hans lost a sprint a few times. He was intimidating because he was a great overall rider. Chris Craig is the top returning rider. BKB has no proven sprinter so good luck to them with that! Beta 1st, PDT 2nd, Cutters 3rd, BKB 4th.
Hey Crack it, he goes by Dwayne Johnson now. please show some respect
Who does Delts have besides Momper, who like you said is second tier? Do they have a 4th guy? Also, I’m not sure that SAE is anywhere near the level they were last year. SNU is a quals team with slightly better endurance this year. I agree that they will wreck but who knows. Who is going to push the pace or are we going to have another super slow race like every other year? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say PDT gets second. BKB should break away with Beta and lap the field together.
pdt for the win, I dont like bkbs chances when nick hartmans too busy djing to ride. sae is darkhorse, that coach has those boys dialed in.
Really, I heard SAE was falling apart and no one was riding together.
I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the SAEs. The older Krahulik had a good track season over the summer and his younger brother seems really strong too. It will be interesting to see what they can do with a relatively inexperienced group. Cutters deserve some love too. Nick Thiery is definitely a rider to look out for in March and April.
Oh yeah? Did the cutters pick up some hot recruits with their bulletin board recruiting in the fall?
JEFFERSOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
BOLD PREDICTIONS FOR THE SPRING:
1. Joe L. from Beta gets top 3 at ITT
2. PDT sub 8:55 teampursuit
3. One of the Cutters has their first period day of quals and gets super embarrassed then faults due to cramps.
4. Scott McClary wears a disguise and tries to enter the race
5 Wright cycling gets top 6
6. Snu benches more than other team
7. During the men’s race it will hail
O yah, and 8. Todd Neville talks a ton of shit citing irrelevant facts that make no sense. Then thinks hes hard cause he signs his name. 9. Zach Lusk acts like a child again. O wait that happens weekly.
#3 actually happened during miss n out finals a couple years ago. It was quite the scene.
LOL, at Wright being top 6. One returning rider after barely cracking the top 10. They will be lucky to qualify.
Is Teter that afraid of Tabitha? What happens if Bailey let’s Team Phoenix stay? According to Indiana Ave, Tab is the most intimidating rider this year in the Men’s field. #risefromtheashes #HBIC #letthemride
Teter didn’t protest Tabitha’s eligibility to race or form a new team. This is important. The protest was due to her teammates being eligible. Teter did not expect IUSF to rule favorably. They wanted to point out that the same exact rule that allowed them to be eligible, was used against Teter the previous year to ban Emily. Her teammate Alyssa, according to IUSF had locked in her affiliation with Wing It even though she never rode quals or the race. McKayla and Jenna were also on team rosters but also did not do quals or the race. They also have returning race teammates, yet they were deemed perfectly ok to switch.
F$%& you Doogs
Lock rock barrel,
If Beta theta desires to win again, I hope they have a strong 4th rider. They would’ve been in deep shit had someone attacked when AJ Sood was on the bike. It takes 4, the last two years are great examples of this.
Ha! It doesn’t take 4 riders to win Little 5. You guys have no idea what it takes to train if you think you can’t win with 3 guys. The past 10 races were so slow that any team with one good rider and 2 ok guys could win.
1986 and 1988 champs the Cutters won with 3 guys and oh yeah, they own the race record at over 25 mph that year in 1986. The 2012 men’s race was one of the slowest races in history. Learn your history! You just need to sit in more and have a great finishing rider.
Alright pedal-pushers, I see your misguided speculation and raise you all something far more valuable: a prophecy.
Just yesterday, during the last of my fifteen squat sets, I was approached by an angel. With lactic acid clouding my vision, he guided me through the three lessons of the 2015 Little 500 — and let me tell you, sh*t’s about to hit the fan. This apparition, suspiciously calling himself “Young”, spoke of great trials and tribulations for a select few teams this year — namely Beta Cycling and Black Key Bulls.
As we road along North Jordan Ave., Young revealed to me the unfortunate state of Beta Cycling. “As you know, last year our friend Chris Craig (nicknamed Collision Chris) made many teams intimately aware with what it feels like to (nearly) contest the win, only to crush their hopes and dreams in one fell swoop. Whether or not you believe in karma, Chris will be quarantined on the track this year, a five-foot radius surrounding him at all times. Combine this with his lieutenant’s season-ending injury, and what’s left is a team stretched far too thin.”
Young and I, still riding, bound up Jordan before stopping at Armstrong to watch the events unfold.
“As the riders complete their 35th lap,” Jason Sonneborn narrates, “Beta burns for an exchange to AJ Sood, one of their returning riders. Phi Delta Theta is giving them no room to get away, and Beta drops the bike!” Now half a lap down before the pace settles, Beta is left out of the running.
“Lesson one: Discipline,” says Young tersely. “Teams like Beta, SigEp, and Delts will lack discipline and fall short on fundamentals.”
Now partly enlightened, we coast north, venturing deep into the forests of Bloomington. “Here,” Young resumes, “this is where the Black Key Bulls reside and train, living off the land and
hardening themselves in the bitter winter cold.” We sat for a while and observed the team and their mannerisms. “Notice the way they carry themselves, overtly confident, though lacking pragmatism concerning the circumstances of last year’s win.” Their head’s held high, BKB talks of grand domination, but clearly lacks realism in their conjectures.
“Lesson two,” Young continues, “Be Realistic. Black Key Bulls will lose touch with the frontrunners around lap 152 when SAE (you heard right), pushes the pace and inadvertently causes a wreck.”
“Wow,” I respond nervously for the first time, unable to wholly grasp the depths of Young’s knowledge.
We pause for a while, still deep within the forests near Paragon. “And what’s the third lesson?”
“Lesson three,” he replies before trailing off… I suddenly feel reality closing in upon me, the lactic acid again burning in my legs. The gym and forest fade in and out, and I’m once again hoisting the 450 pound squat bar upwards. “Lesson three…” Young’s eyes glimmer for a moment before he too begins to fade, and I, dropping the bar into the rack, see all but the words on his t-shirt grow dim before me.
“Stop Cutters.”
To be quite honest, from an outsider’s perspective, this conversation seems to be a bit narrow focused when it comes to judging talent and abilities. Two thoughts:
1. The Little 500 is very unique, requires a relatively large assortment of skills from the anomaly that is a bike exchange all the way to coaching against a bunch of careless-minded, accident prone frat boys who don’t know a chainring from a DZ’s dripping taint. Sure being bigger on a track of cinders may help, but if you don’t have the training to back it up, you might as well enjoy the race from the stands. But just because the event is unique (for many other reasons I don’t have the time or energy to elaborate upon – again from my perspective) doesn’t mean you can just separate it from all other areas of cycling as most of you are currently doing, which leads into my next point.
2. You simply cannot just judge riders from their ITT and fall series performances, or anything of the like. Sure those help give a feel for how that person will transition from the road to the track, but one must look at the other aspects of the sport. Take a look at the historic riders who “made it out of The Little 500”: Stetina, Knapp, Sheerer, Young – you could even argue those who made it to the elite-am level. What did they have in common that lead to results in Little 5 that a majority, no, that almost all of the field lack? They raced outside of the Little 500. Road, track, cyclocross, you get the picture? They trained and raced year-round, building their competitive abilities – not touring the hills of Bloomington on spring days when they could be racing future professionals at Marian University. I’ve seen results (or lack there of) from Craig, Torrance, McClary, Momper, Tabitha Sherwood, the “Teter” team, and he rest of the field. I can count on one hand the number of riders who raced competitively more than 15-20 times between the spring and summer seasons (above a cat 3 or 4 level). Before you all continue to bicker back and forth, do your research. You’re an embarrassment to the sport and the Little 500 if you can’t get your facts straight.
Sure the bike used in Little 500 has a small gear and so it’s said “neutralizes the field” but do some extrapolation, people.
Fuck the Cutters,
Mike Hunt
Boulder, CO
“F the Cutters” – agreed.
Hunt, You made two claims that seem to contradict themselves. 1. Little 500 is very unique. 2. You should judge a riders ability from not just Little 500 but their total cycling field of work. Because L5 is so unique, the best indicators of success are results riders produce ON THE TRACK. Road does not = Cinders. Look at past history, how often are there surprise winners? Very rarely. The best teams and the teams who end up winning are very evident from spring series and other cinder related events, not winning random road races.
Just cause you are a CAT 2 racing against a bunch of 3,4 and 5’s does not mean you are stronger little 500 rider. Quite often, yes, those riders are in fact faster on the track, however its not because they race in Cat 2 races, but rather they perform well on track throughout spring series, track practices, and the race series. Scott McClary is a category 2 rider. Using your logic, shouldn’t he have beaten up on all the riders throughout last year? Scott was a very strong rider, but there were category 3,4 and 5 riders who were better than him on the track.
Mike,
It’s somewhat funny that only 2 of the riders you mention ever actually won the race. As a matter of fact, Knapp’s team got dropped his senior year by none other than Cutters. Mike Scherer also never won. The other 2 were other worldly and either pro when they started Little 5 or pro when they finished already. Stetina would be ineligible today and Young easily could have been deemed ineligible his senior year due to the fact that he already signed a pro contract. The fact is, you can’t race all year round without possibly becoming ineligible. You do make some good points though as you need all types of racing and competitive scenarios to be great. But then you need to specifically work on your track and cadence skills to get you to the top of Little 5. For example, a guy that got 10th in the national road race 2 years in a row in 1999 and 2000 got dropped on his very first set in Little 500 and finished 2 laps down without a crash. He and another Cat 3 were on the same team. No speed was developed. I say race track, cyclocross, road, and practice your time trialing. Then when school starts, train Little 5 and small gearing. If you’re no good after that then you are either a terrible athlete or don’t know what you’re doing with your training.
Gotta love Teter protesting Tabitha/Phoenix and kicking off little 5 controversy this year. Watching Lusk cry about it on Facebook was just an added bonus
Gotta love bulging biceps of Snu bros too. They gonna contend for sure #thomasstrong
Did they have flip phones when Luke Momper was a freshman?
As much as everyone seems to love the trash talk from the women’s field, turns out there’s a race too.
One team I’m keeping an eye on is Ski. As my esteemed colleague POOPYFART69 said earlier: “THEY GOT THEMSELVES SOME MEAN BITCHES” and I wouldn’t doubt my man T-Sweezy to have them ready on race day!
Top dorm team this year ?
Who cares?
YOUR MOM
Anyone talking shit = JV Squad. Understand your sub-par results speak way more than words. Talking shit while playing tummy sticks on your couch does not validate you. Heading out for a 4-hour ride. Seeya at the finish line.
Validatatiom? The ring on my finger.
Everyone knows you have to follow up 4 hour rides with 12 hour roller sessions, do you even train?