The other Cutter: Lusk finds success alongside Young

He was early as usual. His red jersey made him stick out against the cement pavement like a fire hydrant on a street corner.

Fraternity brothers from a house bordering the stadium walked past Zach Lusk, glancing at the Little 500 cyclist. They didn’t know who he was. Not many IU students do. They don’t recognize his mug from the front page of the newspaper.

Few remember his smile as he hoisted the Borg Warner trophy in victory each of the last three years.

They remember his teammate, Eric Young.

Young has dominated the Little 500 race since he joined the Cutters team in 2007. He has experienced everything from crossing the finish line with his hands extended to the sky in jubilation to being the center of a professional status debate in an amateur sport.

And Lusk has been there through all of it with Young. He has defended his team. He has taken the glares that come with wearing that white shirt with “CUTTERS” in black written across the chest. He has heard the rally cries of a contingency cheering for his team to fail.

Lusk welcomes the curse-filled chants. Define him by those seven letters — he’ll wear them with pride. He has something nobody else on any other team in the field has: three championships.

He is the other Cutter.

***

It was just a few days after the 2008 race that Young and coach Jim Kirkham asked themselves the same question when they saw Lusk’s 6-foot, unfit frame for the first time.

“He didn’t have a rider’s body at all,” Young said.

In the single-stoplight town of New Carlisle, Ind., about 20 miles from the edge of Lake Michigan in northern Indiana, corn and baseball reign.

Lusk grew up on the fields of his family’s farm and played baseball for his high school team, the New Prairie Cougars.

He spent one season playing ball for Manchester College before transferring to IU.
In Bloomington, he realized what he thought college was for: beer and partying.

After one semester, Lusk discovered the shape he was in from baseball wasn’t easy to maintain. He wanted to do something to change that. He contacted his former cross country teammate Eric Hamilton.

Hamilton rode in the Little 500 for the Cutters, and he introduced Lusk to the Cutters’ Clayton Feldman, who told Lusk he should give cycling a try. Runners make great cyclists, and great cyclists win championships.

“I didn’t discount him, but at the same time I really didn’t think he was going to stick around long,” Kirkham said.

Lusk arrived thinking his first ride with the team would be an easy, 45-minute jog. After all, it was a hot day for riding.

That day, however, the Cutters had a different ride planned: a 100K route, or 62 miles.
“He had gone out drinking the night before,” Young said with a smile.

At around 20 miles, the Cutters rode near Lake Monroe.

“We were coming up to a church near (state road) 37 and he drops off the pack,” Young said. “He gets off the bike, collapses on the ground and says, ‘I don’t know if I can get back on.’”

Lusk lie in the grass off the shoulder of SR 37. A friend came and picked up him and his brand-new bike from the side of the road.

“We joke with him that the only reason he continued to ride was he wasn’t going to let that new bike go to waste,” Young said. “Now he’s improved more than anyone else I’ve ridden with.”

***

In athletics, legacies outlive athletes.

But in college, a dynasty can be made in just four years.

The IU class of 2011 has seen no one else win but the Cutters.

Lusk said he and his team do not care if fans are growing tired of the same team winning year after year.

Regardless of what people think, the Cutters say they don’t recruit. Lusk said the team doesn’t care who a rider is — ask to go for a ride and you shall receive, but you better show up to practice.

They train to win, but at the same time the Cutters have grown into a family.

At the end of the day, Kirkham reminds his team that the Little 500 is just a silly little bike race. In the overall view of things, the bonds of friendship mean much more.

Lusk isn’t all about the race. He considers Young one of his best friends and is known for his tireless work, but he knows college is only four races long.

He said he lives a college life, but it’s not the stereotypical one with drinking to get drunk.

“I’m really into Little Five, and it’s definitely changed my life, but I’m also here to kind of somewhat get a college experience,” Lusk said.

Compared to his senior teammate and co-captain Young, Lusk is a self-admitted party animal.

“Eric has probably been to the bars maybe three times this year,” Lusk said. “I consider him one of my best friends, but at the same time he’s kind of boring. He’s to the tee, and he knows what he needs to do. He goes to class, rides his bike, stretches, goes to bed.”

Lusk said Young has more race knowledge than anybody else in the field, which is what makes him so good. But what makes the Cutters good — the whole team, not just their star senior rider — is that they all study the race. They all stretch. They all race to win.

“We definitely have the depth this year to do it,” Lusk said. “Whatever comes of it, we can win this race without Eric, if need be.”