Cutters jersey collection growing

Regardless of being on a Little 500 Schwinn bike for just his second year, Cutters’ rider Zach Lusk is not too worried about how his team will compete.

“We do have the same four riders that we did last year,” he said. “It’s definitely a little confidence boost, but at the same time we know that a lot of the other top contending teams have all their riders returning.”

Lusk, along with teammate Michael Schroeder were the only two Cutters in the semi-finals of Miss ’N Out. Heavily-favored teammate Eric Young was eliminated from the race after his chain broke in the second round. Miss ‘N Out and the other spring series events have proven that the field of this year’s men’s race are strong.

“You can look at the qual times, and there are six teams that would have taken the pole last year with their times,” Lusk said. “I think the race is going to be a lot faster this year than last year, but we’re definitely feeling good.”

So far, their good feeling had them qualify in the first pole position after the teams’ 10th Little 500 title. Winning qualifications gives the team the green jersey, but the team already has the yellow jersey for winning last year’s race. Lusk said the team will wear the yellow jersey.

A combination of yellow and green does not seem to be in the lineup, either. The Cutters team’s goal is to eliminate the green and white jersey, given to the winner of the spring series events, from the row guide for race day.

“One of our goals at the beginning of the year was to get all three jerseys so nobody else could wear them,” Lusk said. “Kind of cocky, but at the same time, it’s just hard to accomplish something like that. We just want to add that to our resume.”