After loss of key member, Teter looks to experienced riders for leadership on, off track

There were only minutes left until their 11:40 a.m. qualifications time slot. The women warmed up on stationary bikes in the center of Bill Armstrong Stadium, Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” thumping from the team’s portable radio in the background as they pedaled.

When their warm-up was done, they took to the track. Despite a first-attempt fault between the third and fourth lap, they eventually took the top spot on the leaderboard with a time of 2:42.95 that would stick throughout the day, giving the women of Teter cycling their first quals pole since 2009.

In the past two years, Teter has fallen short of first in quals, taking second place. However, on race day, the team pulled out a first-place victory.

With back-to-back wins and a pole victory in hand, the team members said they look toward the race after months of training. Yet with the absence of star-rider Caitlin Van Kooten, who graduated last year, the question remains: Can the team produce another win?

“You don’t really push it when you’re doing endurance. You’re like, ‘This is long,’” senior Co-Captain Lauren Gowdy said to senior Lisa Hutcheson, trying to describe her teammate’s best quality.

“It hurts, dog,” Hutcheson replied.

“Susan’s there when we need her,” Gowdy said, turning to her co-captain.  

“I’m present,” senior Susan Laurie deadpanned, following with, “I look good on the bike.”

“She always encourages the rookies and is really sweet to them,” Gowdy said. “I don’t know why.”

“We’ve got a good cop, bad cop thing going on here,” Laurie said with a laugh.

Since they started training in August, the six women of Teter cycling have spent dozens of hours per month training, all for a shot at Little 500 supremacy.

Gowdy and Laurie co-captain the team to fill the role Van Kooten previously had. This is Gowdy’s fourth year riding for Teter and Laurie’s third.

The team’s lead coach, Chris Wojtowich, lives four hours away and makes it down to Bloomington for qualifications and the race. When he’s not there, it’s up to Gowdy and Laurie to provide direction.

“The seniors are really doing a lot of the coaching for exchanges and what needs to happen during practices,” Gowdy said. “But it’s really a team thing where we all make the decisions as a team, and maybe the captain makes the final call, but all of us critique each other and tell each other what we’re doing wrong, just because we really depend on each other, so we’re kind of independent in that way, which is nice.”

Gowdy said the team learned much from Van Kooten last year. She said Van Kooten did a great job leading the team by allowing teammates to workout with her.

“We always were doing workouts with her, and I think that’s really important as a strong rider to incorporate your team into the hard workouts and to make sure that they’re working hard, as well,” Gowdy said. “It’s just made everyone stronger riders training with her.”

Van Kooten, who captured the Miss-N-Out and Individual Time Trials titles this past year, aided Teter by eating up a lot of laps with her endurance.

“It’s unfortunate she graduated, but we have a really strong team this year, and the times look comparable to Caitlin’s, too,” Gowdy said.

“We’re obviously not going to win every spring series event like she did, or maybe,” she said, trailing off.

But so far, the Teter riders have not taken the win at either the ITT or Saturday’s Miss-N-Out.

“(Van Kooten) was really strong, and right now, we don’t have one strong rider,” Gowdy said. “We have four strong riders. We don’t have one Superman.”

And while Van Kooten now lives in Minneapolis, she still occasionally makes it down to Bloomington to ride and spend time with her old teammates.

Laurie said she has found her new leadership role more of a thrill than a challenge.

“It has been different because Caitlin was captain for two years, and she had things kind of set, so it’s also kind of figuring things out,” Laurie said. “I think we’re all stepping up. It’s definitely going to be different for us as a team going into the race, which is a lot more exciting, I think.”

Gowdy said the team doesn’t have a specific game plan for race day, only that she’s using the spring series events to see where her teammates are the strongest.

Knowing Teter is defending back-to-back wins does create some pressure, Gowdy acknowledged.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking just because there’s a lot of pressure, and you don’t have that one rider that’s sticking out and could crush anyone on the track, but then again, we’re all really confident riders on the track, and we handle our bikes well, and we all know what to do,” Gowdy said. “We just know that we have to get out there and do what needs to be done.”