Women's Little 500

The Women's Little 500 is a bicycle race held annually at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington.

It consists of half the distance of the men's race: 100 laps (25.49 miles) around the quarter-mile cinder track (410-meters) at the Bill Armstrong Stadium.

The Women's race is just one of the several expansions added to the Men's Little 500 in order to create a week of celebration.

No longer seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong called the Little 500, which has raised more than $1 million in scholarship money, "the coolest event I ever attended."

[1] The inaugural Women’s Little 500 was held in 1988, in response to 4 members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority narrowly failing to qualify for the 1987 men’s event on their 3rd and final attempt.

In the fall of 1987 two of the Theta riders considered either a second attempt to enter the men’s race in 1988 or starting a women’s Little 500, they chose the latter.

These women Leeann (Guzek) Terhune and Martha (Hinkamp) Gillum found a receptive Indiana University Student Foundation (the organization that conducts the race), who along with Phyllis Klotman, dean of Indiana University Office of Women's Affairs, agreed to support their effort.

While the support was crucial, the task of gathering 33 teams fell to Leeann and Martha, who spent any spare time meeting with potential women riders.

The winner of the first Women’s Little 500 was Willkie Sprint, a team of four freshmen including Kirsten Swanson, Louise Elder, Amy (Tucker) Dixon, and Kerry Hellmuth.

Hailing from Willkie quadrangle dormitory, they were coached by fellow student Kevin Wentz who was assisted on race day by a fifth teammate Kristin McArdle.

Their win and the efforts of Hinkamp, Guzek, and Klotman were chronicled in an article in The New York Times published the day after the first women's race was successfully run and garnered a crowd of 15,000.

If caught, you will not only have to deal with the consequences imposed by the university, but your team will also forfeit their eligibility in the race.

The cost of the bikes are, for the most part, covered in the team registration fees and race sponsorship money.

More often than not, it is because one member of the team is shorter than the rest because most cyclists in the race are fairly tall.

The second reason is so that teams can scout out the competition and get a feel for that year's race field.

Qualifications is a four lap race around the track to see which team can get the fastest cumulative time.

Smooth bike exchanges and quick single lap speed are the marks of a successful qualification.

Officials hold the bicycles in place until the starting signal is given, after which the riders accelerate from a complete stop and race around the track.

Riders are placed along the starting line in order from fastest (on the inside) to slowest (on the outside) and are then given one lap to get the position they want in the pack and to gain some speed.

The IUSF website describes the event as, "An exercise in pack riding and a test in tactics.

Sometimes described as "musical chairs on a bike," Miss-N-Out is the most popular spectator series event."

From there, riders must race around the track in a pace line for 12 laps (approximately 3 miles) trying to catch the other team.

The fastest two times of the preliminary heats square off against each other in the final, which determines the event champions.

Every day, Monday through Friday, there are two hours and fifteen minute track times held separately for men and women.

Secondly, the new rule was going to prohibit alumni coaches from being in their respective team's pit on race day.

Both of these caused a great deal of controversy, to the point that some teams were threatening to boycott the race.

And it is believed that this rule change is one of the reasons why the women's race did not have a full field in 2007.