ITT winning riders try to continue trend at Miss-N-Out event

With the Individual Time Trials wrapped up, the next event of the Little 500 spring series is another individual competition: Miss-N-Out.

The event will begin at noon Saturday at Bill Armstrong Stadium.

Unlike the ITTs, Miss-N-Out features competition between riders on the track at the same time, rather than races against the clock.

“It’s more about positioning,” said senior Rex Rafferty of the Black Key Bulls.
“It’s a lot less about who’s faster. It’s who has the most strategy and can position themselves for the sprint.”

The setup of Miss-N-Out is distinctive compared to the other events of the Little 500 season, making it one of the most interesting ones to watch.

To start, each rider is put into one of 16 groups, which usually contain eight to 10 bikers each, depending on how many participate in the whole event.

The riders of each group will all start on the same line and have one lap to position
themselves.

Each lap after that, the last rider to cross the finish line is out of the race. The last three riders remaining advance to the next round.

This process continues with the number of survivors varying each round until a final heat of six is created.

In the final group, the same process continues until only three riders remain.

The final three then perform a one lap sprint with the first-, second- and third-place finishers determined by when the back wheels of their bikes cross the finish line.

Only two riders from the final six men in 2011 are back this season: Steven Sharp of Phi Delta Theta and Adam Fish of Sigma Chi.

Sharp finished second overall in both last year’s Miss-N-Out and Wednesday’s ITTs and is looking to finally break through with a victory.

Fish achieved a fourth-place finish in last year’s Miss-N-Out, but after finishing 18th in this year’s ITTs, he plans to get back on top Saturday.

The women riders also feature two returners from last year’s top six. Kathleen Chelminiak of Kappa Alpha Theta finished fourth, and Kayce Doogs of Delta Gamma placed fifth in 2011.

Chelminiak finished first in the women’s ITTs and said she hopes she can do the same on Saturday.

“I’d obviously be really excited,” Chelminiak said. “But it kind of depends on who’s fresh that day and who’s going hard. When it comes down to it, everyone’s put in so much work. It just kind of depends on who has the legs that day.”

RJ Stuart of Delta Tau Delta finished first in the men’s ITTs, and he also said he wants to go for the double dose.

Boding well for Stuart and Chelminiak is the fact that last year’s ITTs winners, Cutters’ Eric Young and Teter’s Caitlin Van Kooten, also won the Miss-N-Out competition.

While most cyclists try to strategize beforehand and figure out the best way to approach the race, Stuart said he prefers to keep the strategy of Miss-N-Out simple.

“It’s not that big of a difference,” he said. “You just hop on a bike and go fast again.”