Here's part three of a quick look at the field's for Friday and Saturday's races. If you haven't yet, read about five riders to watch and four interesting stats. Also, if it's not too late, pick up a copy of today's IDS for the 24-page Little 500 guide.
Now, here's a look at three teams that could qualify as dark horse candidates to win the race. These teams could play a key role, especially in a rain-shortened event. Often, the good-but-not-great teams lack that key sprinter at the end of the race. Rain = no need for a last-lap sprint. So we'll see if rain has any impact this weekend.
Anyways, here's three teams to watch.
Men
- Sigma Chi - Of all 66 men's and women's teams in the race, Sigma Chi best fits the definition of a dark horse candidate. The team has depth and speed (three riders in top 20 for ITTs) but is a fresh face among the leaders. Since 2004, Sigma Chi hasn't finished higher than 10th, with several sub-25th place finishes. The team qualified 8th - can they stay in the front pack all day?
- Delta Upsilon - A few of the teams on these lists are riding on the strength of one or two riders. Last year, DU qualified 17th, but Dave Richardson-Rossbach immediately jumped into the lead pack within the first two laps and the team finished 7th. This year, the team finds itself in 15th place to start the day, but still has DRR to keep them in contention. Will he have enough strength to put them in contention and win at the end?
- Beta Theta Pi - With a couple new faces on Beta's roster, the team doesn't look anything like the group that qualified 33rd last year. The team has speed - qualifying fifth in the race, but inexperience may also be a factor on race day. With two sophomores, a freshman and a senior on this year's squad (and another sophomore as a 5th rider), no matter the result this year, Beta is reloaded for the next couple years.
Women
It's tougher to find dark horse candidates in the women's field, because there is not much separation at the top. No clear cut favorite means that any of the top 10 teams that win really wouldn't be that much of a surprise. But here's three teams that might be a little surprising and why.
- Army Women - The ultimate stealth team. They have plenty of depth - four riders placed in the top 30 in ITTs, but no rider stands out as above the rest. The team qualified fourth but has not really been a factor in any of the spring series events and lacks a marquee sprinter. I wrote last year that this was the 2009 women's dark horse candidate to win; they're under-the-radar nature keeps them in that role this year.
- Pi Beta Phi - For Pi Beta Phi (and Kappa Delta below), the team's success will come down to one rider. Maybe it isn't right to put the defending champion who is returning its most important rider (Caroline Brown) in a "dark horse" category. But with less depth this year, Brown may be required to ride more than the 70 laps she put in last year. And if a rider goes 80+ laps on the bike and still wins the race, than that qualifies as an amazing feat.
- Kappa Delta - KD is like Pi Phi except its number one rider (Jennifer Balbach) is probably not as strong as Brown, but the team has more depth. Will Balbach be able to put down a special performance Friday to keep her team in contention?
