You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson, Cascal
and Clavio joining you on the show.
It's good to have you folks with us again.
It is Thursday, April 18th. It's a beautiful day in
Bloomington. Gonna be about 80° down here
today. We've got the football spring
game coming up tonight at 8:00. Some of you I know are going to
be coming down for that, but of course that's not the only thing
going on this week. It is little five week in
Bloomington. The world's greatest college
weekend is actually here, and we're going to talk about that
throughout the course of this podcast, a complete little 500
episode. We've got some special guests to
talk us through what we're going to see during the race and we're
going to hear a little bit from folks who have ridden in the
race before as we've got Katie Capusta de Victor joining us in
a little bit. She is our field analyst for the
race, broadcast on Friday for the women's race.
And then we've got Matt Nogori and Zach Horowitz that are going
to be joining us a little bit later on in the podcast.
They'll be our analysts for the broadcast on Saturday.
Those of you who are new to the show may not be aware of this,
but I've been heavily involved with Little 500 for about a
decade now, specifically with putting the broadcast on.
I'm the executive producer of the broadcast and it's probably
the thing I enjoy the most throughout the course of the
year as we're able to get our students from the media school
involved in that. We're able to get alums who have
ridden in the race before. We have a great working
partnership with the IE Student Foundation, who of course is the
group that puts the race on, and this is always an amazing effort
by so many people. There's so much that goes on
behind the. Scenes with little. 500 that you
don't really know about. And we've been able, I think, to
put together a lot of really good media content throughout
the course of this spring that maybe gives people a better
sense of everything that goes on with little 500.
So we're looking forward to talking to you about all of that
today as I hope you get a chance to either watch the race.
It'll be on broadcast.iu.edu. That's where it is every year.
It's a live stream and it is done with the exact same
infrastructure that we use for our Big 10 student U broadcast.
If you ever watched any of those students in all the production
roles, students in most of the broadcasting roles, we'll have
Zion Brown as our play by play broadcaster for the women's
race. We'll have Austin Platt as our
play by play broadcaster for the men's race.
You may recognize both of those voices and names from our sports
coverage. And then in the field, we've got
Riley Woodall and Kara Adams as our field reporters working
alongside our former rider experts.
So we'll be starting at 4:00 for the women's race on Friday, so
be sure to tune in for that. And then 2:00 on Saturday for
the men's race should be an excellent time.
Before we get to our interviews today, I wanted to just remind
you all that Home Field Apparel is our presenting sponsor for
both Crimson Cast and the Back Home Network as a whole.
And Home Field Apparel is the place to go for the finest in
college fashions, including little 500 fashion.
And if you haven't seen what home field apparel is doing
right now with their little 500 collection, they are expanding
it and it is incredibly exciting to see what home field is put
together. They've got, I believe, 8 new
pieces of little 500 apparel that are going to be rolling out
here. If you haven't already bought
the shirts that they put out before that they've had some
some really nice T-shirts, but it's expanding beyond that now
and you've got, you know you got a ringer tee, you've got some
short and long sleeve Tees. I believe there's a a a jacket
in there as well. There'll be a pop up store at
Upland here in Bloomington on both Friday and on Saturday.
So you want to come down and check that out if you're in for
the races or just in town for the the spring game or whatever.
But you can also order online at home field apparel.com use the
code Home 23. Get 15% off your first order.
Also just a reminder that we are on Sub Stack.
If you want to subscribe to the Crimson Cast Sub Stack, you get
our podcast sent to you for free and we'd love to be able to
bring you into the community that way rather than you having
to have you rely on going to social media to find what we're
doing here. And the nice thing about it is
you'll get connection with the rest of the Back Home Network,
which covers the entire constellation of IU athletics
and obviously a lot to talk about with basketball.
We talked about that on our previous podcast and and that's
another thing I'll mention is that if you haven't gone back
and listened to the last podcast that I did, we had a nice
conversation with Rachel Brown, who's another one of our former
writer analysts for the Little 500.
She'll be appearing on the women's broadcast on Friday.
So without further ado, we're going to bring in Katie Kapusta
to Victor, who is our field analyst for the race on Friday,
and then we'll have Matt and Zach joining afterwards.
As I mentioned with the last podcast, there's no like the the
order of this is essentially, you know, we want to get these
interviews out to you and there won't be like an ending on the
podcast necessarily. So the the interview kind of
stops abruptly with Zach and Matt, but that's by design.
Anyway, hope that you all have a good rest of the day and
hopefully we see you down here for the spring game, for the
women's little 500 and for the men's little 500.
And again, you can watch the broadcasts of the little 500
races at broadcast.iu.edu. And we've got Katie Capusta de
Victor joining us here on the show.
It's good to see you, Katie. I'm going to see you later on
this week as you're going to be doing the women's broadcast.
You're our field analyst this time around.
It's good to have you back. How?
You doing? Oh my gosh.
I mean, yeah, it's a little five week.
It's the best week of the year. I'm so excited to come back and
I missed last year's race, so I'm just like itching to be back
in Bloomington in April and you know, kind of see what all
unfolds. It'll be fun.
Yeah, it should be a good time. I mean it's it's an interesting
set up. The weather's going to be like
kind of in the sweet spot. I was talking about this with
people earlier. I mean, I would prefer a warmer
little 5 just because I like it being warm, you know, if I
decide that I need to go and like see people outside after
the race. But I've heard that the riders
prefer it to be a little bit on the cooler side, not not
freezing. But right now the forecast for
Friday's race is 62° with about a 10 mile an hour breeze, and
then on Saturday it's about 58° with about 9 mile an hour wind.
How like as as a former rider, and I want to talk about that in
a second with you, but like you hear those conditions, what are
you thinking? I say that's pretty ideal
considering at least here in Cincinnati.
I think like weather in Bloomington, similar like the
amount of rain we've had this last week, you'd think like, OK,
that's also great for the track. But temperature wise and wind
rise wise you are looking near perfect.
I would prefer that woman's, you know, temperature over the
men's. That's like a tad cold for me on
the men's side on Saturday. But yeah, like mid 60s, low
winds, anything 10 or under I feel like is not like super
impactful on the race. So I would say that's pretty
good. I mean I'm with you.
I would love a little sunshine and like 70° but I get it when
you're moving and that adrenaline is like flowing
through you on that race day like you're just you're
sweating, you're hot. It's a it's a lot like of build
up and stuff. So if it's too hot, then yeah,
it's it's a little tough, but I mean Friday that if it stays
that way and no rain, I think we're cooking that's.
What? Let's talk a little bit about
your background with the race. So you, I obviously know you
because you were one of my sports media students and you
reported on the race, but you were also in the race.
So talk a little bit about, like, who you rode with, how you
got involved, like, give us the whole story.
No, I love it. Yes.
So this is like one of my most favorite things I tell people
about being at IU like I was part of Little Five.
It's just such a unique experience.
So I rode for fine you my sorority that I was in at IU and
I actually joined the team rookie week my freshman year,
which is in the spring. And I actually played club
soccer at IU my freshman and sophomore year in the fall.
And a girl on my team who was a senior at the time who also
ended up, was also in FAIMU. Ironically, she was a biker and
someone I really looked up to and was like once I joined
FAIMU. She's like, you know, you should
really join the bike team. Like, you're athletic, Like,
we've got a great group. You know, we're kind of
rebuilding this team. And so, you know, I kind of got
like pulled into this like Riku week having no idea I'm not from
Indiana. So I really had no idea what I
was getting into and ended up like, OK, well this sounds like
fun. Like I'll try it out.
And that's kind of where it started.
So I didn't race on the team that year.
I rode my sophomore, junior and senior year and then software
year was unique because I was like the newbie and everybody
else was like older and had a little bit of experience.
And my junior and senior year, I had to kind of rebuild at least
my junior year. And then was kind of the the
leader, which was fun and he kind of like making sure that
like what I joined and was building that up to you know
hopefully leaving it better than what we found it and stuff.
But and then I was part of Riders council my junior and
senior year, which is the like leadership group for riders.
Which is really cool because it gives you a chance to just like
meet people outside of your own team and have more of like that
community feel. Which I think just made Little 5
even more fun because I mean, Rachel, like, I know a lot of
people like Rachel Brown, you know, rode for Theta and they
were like girls on Theta. So like, I got to know them when
I was writing and it just kind of just makes it feel like your
own little kind of clique and group, I guess, at IU and make
it feel a little smaller. So.
But that's kind of how I got into it and who I rode for and
all that stuff. Yeah.
That's awesome. And you know, obviously as as
someone who you know, there's always these multiple classes of
riders and this idea of you've got some people that come
specifically because they're going to ride in Little 5 and
you got folks like you who you have an athletic background, but
you know this is a completely different type of thing.
What was the adaptation like for you from a mentality perspective
once you saw how competitive the race could be at the highest
levels? Yeah, that's a good question.
I don't think people that really like Someone Like You and your
students spend a lot of time, you know, understand the race,
so they have a little better idea.
But like there's really not that many people that actually know
how much work goes into teams that are, you know wanting to be
competing to be on the podium. So for me, I didn't, I did not
know that I I came into it like kind of green and whatever.
And as a freshman, I think, you know, I still didn't quite
understand, but we actually, my freshman year find me was in the
Sprint finish and they finished I think 4th or 5th.
And so then when you see that happen and you're like whoa like
this is intense, like you see it coming down to like just like
like the hair of the dog, like it's just so close.
And so for me just to understand like after that I was like okay,
like you know this is, this is a lot of work and even like as
each year I feel like we kind of built it up a little bit more
like my sophomore year we went on a spring break trip which was
you know, great, it was great training, we bonded and
whatever. But that's not, that's not
kosher anymore. Like if you want to be
competitive, you're staying in Bloomington on spring break and
you're using that extra track time because track time is so
valuable. So you know, you kind of live
and you learn as you as you go. So junior and senior year, you
know, we stayed in Bloomington for spring break, which I mean
that's not really a spring break.
You know, you're, you're riding twice or you know, more times a
day. You're exhausted, you've got
cinders all over your knees and elbows and stuff.
So I think, you know, there was a moment where I was like, OK,
this is intense. But I also think like as I kind
of went, we gradually increased how competitive we wanted to be
in the field. So let's talk a little about the
race this year. You know, it's it's been
interesting kind of coming out of COVID, obviously.
We had that weird COVID race in 2021, which was in May.
It was just a throwback to the 60s era, basically.
And then you know the the women's race has really gotten
interesting just in terms of it's gotten more competitive.
You've got a full field this year for the first time in a
long time. I mean, it feels like women's
sports is having a moment in general across the country, and
this is just kind of like another example at the Indiana
level of that very thing. And it makes my heart so happy
to see a full field. It's been a while and I just
love and even seeing new teams that I'm like who is this team?
You know, they weren't there when I was writing, you know,
just to see that is fantastic. I mean it just it goes to show
like this is like going in the right direction like you
mentioned COVID, I think and it even for our team, for finding
you. I mean, it was really hard to
build up after that because it you, you use the race as a
recruiting tool every year like your freshman, they get to see
the race like I did and you realize, whoa, like this is so
awesome. I want to do this and when you
don't have that for a year and really too because you know
there weren't fans allowed in 2021.
It's like it's tough. So to see it kind of on the
upswing and like you mentioned you know the the women's sports
just it's been so fun to watch and to cover on my side and to
see it like also happening at IU at little 5I.
I just hope like it continues, you know, like not only do we
want to fulfill, but we want to fulfill of competitive teams.
And then I think the women's race for a long time has been
OK. You've got a handful of teams
that are really competitive that could actually win this race
wouldn't wouldn't it be nice in a couple years we see you know,
a little bit more like the men's side, like maybe you've got like
1012 teams that are really competitive and you don't see
this pulling up the pack situation anymore.
You see teams really levelling out and I think as a as a former
rider and as just someone that's viewing the race, that's what
you want to see it go. Yeah, and look, I think
sometimes people, I've all, I've, I've often had to try to
correct people who, you know, sometimes forget that the
women's race is part of the weekend.
And it's like, no, this is actually, from a spectator
perspective, I think my favorite of the two because there's no
fluff like it is. It's 100 laps.
It is. There's very little time for
mistakes and the pacing is so hectic and and you know what?
What what I find interesting about it is like how quick it's
over. It's like an hour 15, hour 20.
So much gets packed into those 100 laps that you blink and you
miss quite a bit of things. I think it's it is even more
chaotic when you're riding. You're like, what's going on?
What's happening? He's doing this and it's just
like, you're screaming, you're yelling, you've got things on
the whiteboard and it's just like, it's over and you're like,
wait, that just happened. I agree with you though, because
I mean, as much as I like and before, like, OK, like maybe the
woman's race needs to be a little longer.
I feel like when you watch the men's race, you've got this
little, like, lull where you feel like you can go to the
concession stand, you can get a snack, you can go grab a T-shirt
from the booth. You don't really feel like
you're going to miss a ton. The woman's race.
You need your eyes on that track, like the entire time
because you things can happen in an instant.
And I'm excited I think like you know this year me being on the
field and kind of this field analyst role, I'm hoping that we
can kind of like catch some of those, you know, things that are
happening in the moment. You know, is a team going off
the front who's exchanging, you know what's what are those
conversations on the field in the pits happening.
But yeah, it's it's hectic down there as a rider.
It's it's, it's even more hectic.
It's it's it's a lot of fun though.
That's great. So what are you expecting out of
this race? We we've seen spring series is
over. You know, we've we've seen who,
who's on the pole, We've seen who the best riders have been in
IT. TS You look at all of this and
as a former rider and as someone who's been an analyst on this
race before, what strikes you or what sticks out to you?
So it's interesting as much as I like don't want to see a team
come off the front, I mean it kind of feels like this might be
the year once again. But what I think is really
interesting, you've obviously got teeter, they've so strong
returning all of their riders and really controlled the pace
of the race last year for a good bit.
And I sure they are feeling slighted like that, just fell
through their fingertips last year.
And then you've got Theda, who's just but historically very good.
And you've got Audrey on them and a senior leader that I've
heard them. You know, coaches on their side
saying this is one of the best riders they've ever had come
from their entire program, which is very, very high praise on the
Theta side. You see these two teams, I think
it'll be very interesting to see one teeter maybe wants to come
off. Is Theta going to be following?
I think there's no question that they are because you don't want
that one person leading off. My question though is who is
there a team that might be able to kind of swing their way in
either keeping them from doing that or staying up on them and
trying to create a bigger pack? I just don't think that there
are other two teams that are like so strong that if Teeter
and Theta or just teeter went off by themselves that they
could catch up. It'll be also interesting to
really see the timing of all this.
I think. I think Teeter will be very
strategic and when based off of who's on the track at what time,
I don't think Teeter will care who's on the bike for them.
They've got 4 great riders that really can do what they need.
It'll be who's on the bike for Theta, who's on the bike for DG
or Novus or some of these other top teams.
Is it when their third or fourth rider goes on that we're going
to exploit that and show that we've got four strong riders?
So I don't know, I I always love to see it unfold.
But yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of like one team for Lat 40
off and like watching that, but it really there's a lot that
goes into it and it's always fun to see how it all unfolds and
you never know. I think that's the beauty of the
race is like I might be saying all the stuff, but it might not
happen. If I see something completely
different, there could be a rack in like the 1st 10 laps that
changes the entire course of the race, which is just what makes I
mean little 5 in sports in general so fun because you just
you can't predict what's going to happen.
Yeah. No, I mean, I mean just the
history of of the recent history of the races, we've seen all of
the things that you just described.
You know, we've had a team a couple years ago go off the
front and you know, by the time everybody realized what was
going on, they had black the field twice.
It's like well, OK, that's the rest of the day, but then you
know you've had holes open up randomly in the track because of
weather conditions. I don't think that's going to
happen this time because it's rained.
It's going to be dry for a couple of days.
It's not going to be overly hot. So that should help keep the
track stable. And you know it's, I think
there's, there's there's so many uncertain variables when you're
dealing with this many riders and this many teams in that
confined of a space. It is the one thing I'm really
curious about with the women's race because up up until last
year you've generally had somewhere between like 20 and 25
teams. Going, you're going to have
eight additional teams or 9 or 10 or whatever you want to use
the number as out on the track, which is going to create some
larger packs. It's going to create some slower
traffic at times. And those are factors that you
can't always predict in terms of you may be doing everything
right and someone may be just trying to get out of the way of
somebody else and it creates a chain effect that you're not
expecting. And that happens every year.
I mean, I think about like, am I I hold my breath every time I
watch either the men's or women's race for the 1st 12 laps
because that's usually like maybe the set, the first set for
most riders. It might be 10 to 15 laps at
least on the women's side. And I hold my breath because you
just have a mix of riders that you know, might be on some of
those bottom half teams that aren't as experienced or it's
their first time starting the race.
There's so much nerves, there's so much adrenaline that
something really that's when things can really kind of go
sideways. I think when you have a bigger
pack like that when you add in like you said, you know those
extra teams that's extra teams that have not ridden last year
have you know don't have as much experience you'll it'll be
interesting to see. I mean just how fast maybe some
of those top teams really want to get out of the way.
I think that's always kind of the hope.
But at the same time you want to save your energy a little bit
like let's use maybe some of these teams that are you know in
pole position 789 to 15 that are decent and let's use their them
to kind of help pull and and pull the pack.
But yeah, I mean, you you mentioned all of that about
anything can happen that happened my senior year, someone
right in front of me. Just.
Divvied a little. My front tire hit them.
That changed the race entirely for us in one second.
So you hate to see it, but it's always a possibility, especially
with extra teams this year. Well, it should be a lot of fun.
We're looking forward to having you back on the broadcast.
For those who want to tune in, we're going to start at 4:00 on
Friday and you can TuneIn broadcast.iu.edu.
I will actually, for those of you who are watching this, I
will put the link into the the bio or the whatever the
description. They call it a description.
Katie then did the description underneath the video on YouTube.
So broadcast.iu.edu, 4:00 We'll start the broadcast.
We'll have Zion Brown and and Rachel Brown up top doing the
play by play. And then we'll have Katie in the
infield with Riley Woodall and Kara Adams as we cover
everything in that area. It should be a lot of fun.
Looking forward to seeing you out here again.
Thanks for joining me today. Thanks.
All right. And continuing on with our
little 500 preview podcast, we've got our two analysts for
the men's little 500. We've got Matt Mcgorry.
We've got Zach Horowitz. Guys, welcome to the broadcast
crew. You you're both in your first
year with the crew and and this is always a fun time bringing
people in. It should be a lot of fun this
year. Really fascinating race.
We're going to talk about the race a little bit later in terms
of what we're expecting this year, but let's introduce you to
1st and and get everybody on the same page.
Zach, let me start with you. Give the folks your background
and history as it relates to coming to IU, like where you're
from originally and how you got involved in the Little 5.
Yeah, definitely. So I'm from Carmel IN and I've
been there as long as I can remember grew up there and you
know never really desired to go to IU but somehow ends it up
there and had an amazing experience at IUI was in a
fraternity in AE Pie and I started the bike program back up
through AE Pie and had a great time leading the bike team
through AE Pie for three years until finally kind of going
independent and creating our own independent team through Knicks
English Hut. We created a team called Knicks
English Cycling neh which was amazing and yeah my little 500
experiences or was you know it's ages ago now it was amazing.
I I was incredibly blessed for all the experiences I had and
all the people I met. Matt, how about you?
I come by the way of Alpharetta. GA actually grew up there my
entire life. Decided to have this crazy idea
of going to engineering school at Georgia Tech and as a
freshman, waking up at 8:00 AM for Calc 3 very quickly
understood that that wasn't quite the math.
That was was for me by happenstance happened to find
Kelly School of Business and started evaluating business
schools. Once I've learned that you could
use math to make money, I was hooked.
Line and sinkered into the business curriculum.
Transferred to Indiana. Fun fact.
Actually, I had never been on campus when I transferred to IU.
Never visited, just heard great things.
Was really excited frankly kind of struggle to find my home
within Indiana. I did a run club and that was
great, but was looking for something a little more involved
and by happenstance happened to run into a high school friend I
never even knew went to Indiana. He invited me to join his bike
team Jet Black. So I ended up racing for Jet
Black in 2019. Unfortunately had my COVID year
cancelled in 2020, but then I was fortunate enough in 2022 and
2023 to come back and be the mechanic for Team Delta Zeta on
the women's race side of things. So certainly excited for the
race. It's something that I'm always
looking forward to this time of year and excited to see what
happens and what I'm starting to call April absurdity here on
Saturday. Your your comment about waking
up at 8:00 AM for calc 3 and realizing that's not the math
for you. Sadly, that's how I felt about
waking up at 9:30 for Finite. Which?
Is why I went into the media as opposed to business.
I think you were still well ahead of me on that front.
No that that's that's great guys.
It's it's fascinating to me always with Little 5.
Like the obviously the competition's awesome and you
know watching the teams come together and and hearing the
riders. But just the the sheer volume of
background stories that we hear from people involved in the
race, men's race, women's race, the alumni and and you know all
of the things that make up the kind of character of the little
500 you know and and hearing your guys's stories.
I mean I've I've heard 1000 different variations on like how
we got there. Everything from I knew I we
wanted to come to IU because I wanted to, you know, riding
Little 5 to. I never even knew Little 5
existed. And I happened to run into
somebody randomly on the street. And I've I've always fascinated
at how much people want to stay involved with the race long
after it's over. It's just not something you see
that much in a lot of other things that people do on campus.
That's a great point, Galen, and I think some of it is like the
sense of community. You really get through the race.
Not only are you coming together at this great time in April with
the rest of the campus, but the entire year as as like a
community and as a as a group of teams, women's and men's race,
you're making friends or going on social rides throughout the
summer. You're coming to the track in
the fall for for fall series. So certainly it it feels more
than just a one day in April for for my involvement and how I
think through the race and certainly something that I've
foreseen myself being involved with for some time, giving back
for something that afforded so much to me.
It going off of what you said, Matt, it is such a massive
community. You can call it an event, but
it's really a lifestyle for anybody who partakes in the
Little 500 experience. It's like if you give it your
all, if you buy into what the Little 500 is going to offer you
as a writer or even a mechanic or a coach, you're going to make
amazing memories. You're going to have incredible
friends over the years and it's just an amazing community.
Yeah it's you know I mean I I haven't watched it from afar for
a long time And then being involved over the course of the
last several years in the broadcast it's it's been
fascinating kind of seeing all these stories filter through and
and as we were I was joking with Zach a little bit beforehand
like people that we we interviewed on on broadcast that
I was producing or now back on the broadcast as as part of the
production which is delightful. I love it you know as we as we
you know the the month of April is always a fascinating one in
in Indiana the weather changes so much you know and but that
period between spring break and Little 5 in in normal years is
it's just like a whirlwind. You know for those of us on
campus, I know for me especially being involved in it, it feels
like you know one day we're starting Qualls and then the
next day the the green flag is dropping for the race.
When when you guys think back to your own experiences in the
race, like what is it like for you as a rider going through
that period. The anticipation of knowing you
know you've at least got a chance to be in the race.
If you're in the final four riders on your own team, you
know right to the point where you're you're lined up and
you're going through introductions.
Zach, let's start with you on this.
Like what's what? How do you, how do you manage
those emotions and those thoughts over time?
It's tough, especially at the very beginning.
Like, I can think back very vividly to, you know, my first
race or my first quals in 2016. The team was brand new.
I had basically no experience on a bike.
And yeah, it's it's really nerve wracking, like the moments
before the race, even before falls, like the night of sleep.
Prior to these massive events, you're just like not able to
sleep. You're just thinking about
trying to be able to execute the next day.
And yeah, another thing I think about when I think about nerves
within the race are like the feeling that you have as a rider
starting on the bike for those first few laps to actually get
the race going. Like those.
Just thinking about it makes my heart start racing, you know,
Like those moments are so high stake and it's just so exciting.
Matt, how about you? For for me having candidly race
race once a large part of of spring series, we had a very
competitive team in in 2019 and it was trying to both do what's
right for myself. Obviously you train all year.
Definitely have your focus and goals on being on the race team.
When you know you're going to be that three or four rider.
When your team is 5 or 6 deep though, it's it's kind of like
you know how how do I work with my best friends and not upset
anybody and still do what's right and still try to be that
that top four riders. So for me it was kind of keeping
my head down, making sure I was doing everything I could every
single day. I woke up to get 1% better and
be ideally a rider on a race day team.
And fortunate enough for me, I was selected as a rider and kind
of Zach, you you mentioned it, it's kind of ironic count.
You go to the track in the fall, you go to the track a lot more
in the spring, You spend so much time there, you raise Qualls,
you get through team pursuit, missing out Itts and the reality
is that the race, like you've been on the track, racing
against people the entire spring.
But something certainly feels different when you wake up on a
Saturday and you know there's going to be thousands and
thousands of fans. So for me it's it's like telling
myself that it's another race, another time on the track.
I've done this many times before, but it's hard not to get
lost in in the moment and gravity and brevity of the whole
situation. It's a totally different
feeling. Like you're saying, we've been
there so many times, we've spent countless hours just.
And if my memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure you
have to log a certain amount of hours to actually waste.
Everybody puts in the time. But like you're saying, Matt, it
just feels different. There's something in the air.
There's something about the the small changes that they're just
being like pit boards and like you know, really clean lane
lines and stuff like that to make you feel that something is
just not not wrong, but like different in that different
environment. It's not just showing up to the
track to get some laps in after a Thursday, it's a a full on
production at that point. It's also fascinating to me.
I mean and you guys are relatively recent riders.
You know, you're racing in, you know, 17/18/19 that period.
But I mean I I remember calling the race in 2001 on student
radio and you know, I've seen videos of of races before that.
And really, I mean there's little changes like you
mentioned, but like the the core experience hasn't really changed
a whole lot. And that is in and of itself a
really fascinating thing to think about given how almost
everything. Like you watch a football game
that was televised in 2003 or a basketball game looks like a
different sport and and yet you watch a little 5 from that
period and it doesn't really look like it's altered that much
from what that experience was. Totally.
And you know, I I think there has been some things that have
changed about the race over time.
You know, people have really optimized kind of the logistics
of in the middle of the race, bringing extra handlebars, extra
wheels, etcetera. At the end of the day, it's
still 4 riders on our team, 33 teams.
Format hasn't changed and I think there's something really
powerful and strong about that. I was doing some research
earlier this week. Little 500 is older than the
Indianapolis Colts or the Indianapolis Pacers.
Predates both of those organizations and for me it
feels very powerful that in in kind of an essence, the format
has stayed kind of the same. Riders who are going to ride
this Saturday have ridden in pretty much the same race that
Riders back in 1951 rode in. I find that so powerful and just
again, part of the aura of the race, I think.
It really is. And just like the bikes that we
ride, this race is as simple as it gets.
There's not a whole lot of rules, right?
You know, there's there's really, it's really simple.
And you know, what it makes me think about is we had some
alumni that would work with the a π cycling team back in the
day. And I would have conversations
with them about like their experiences in the race back in
the 80s or whatever. And they're telling me these
stories and it's crazy because like, I can picture exactly what
they're talking about and it's a totally different time, like
literally 40 years prior and I know exactly what they're
referencing. It's amazing.
Two things I'll pick up on on what Matt said.
Not only is the race older than the Indianapolis Colts, it's
older than the Baltimore Colts, who of course moved to Indy
because the Colt the Baltimore Colts started in 1953.
Little Five's been around since 51.
The NBA only was founded in 1946.
So, so Little 5 is almost as old as the entire National
Basketball Association. That's that is remarkable stuff.
And I love all the random, you know, the the the little bits
and pieces of history. I do a whole lecture on Little
500 in my class which a lot of times people are like, why are
we even learning about this? But I my argument's always been,
this is one of the most important cultural touchdowns
that you have at Indiana University and it's been around
for 3/4 of a century. And you know the little things
like in the 60s, you know that in addition to the race, you had
a whole thing on Lake Monroe called the regatta where they
would bring, they would, they would have a boat race, they
would have bands playing on platforms out on Lake Monroe.
Everybody would camp out on the shoreline.
This was still when the drinking age was 18 you know and and you
know so just about I can't imagine today and keep in mind
the race happened in May. Back then the race always
happened on the Sunday of of Mother's Day weekend.
I can't imagine going to Lake Monroe in like mid-april.
That just seems like a terrible idea.
But I I I am trying to imagine the scene now with with IU
culture going down to Lake Monroe for something like that.
But that, that, that's the stuff that's out there, if you dig
about this race a little bit and all the different things that
have happened in and around it and just the way that it's kind
of been ingrained in IU culture over the course of time and.
I kind of view it like baseball sometimes, big baseball fan, you
know, there's there's always stuff that happens in a baseball
game that you're like, how has this never happened in the
history of the sport before? And I feel like it's the same
with Little 5. There's always some new, you
know, phenomenon at the race or something, an incident that
nobody's ever seen before. It feels very new and and to
your point, Galen, there's so much, you know, nuanced history,
specific history. I tell people all the time
there's an Academy award-winning movie about this race.
A lot of people aren't even aware about that.
And, you know, certainly view that there's a lot of if you
want to shine the magnifying glass into all the little
corners, you can find so much interesting history that really
is at the core of Indiana University's ethos, to your
point, Galen. Let's talk a little bit about
the race this year as obviously, you know, the men's race has so
many kind of, you know, interesting twists and turns.
You've got a lot of strong teams, you've got a lot of
strong riders. As you look at the different
storylines that are out there right now and what we've seen
through Spring series so far, what sticks out to both of you
as far as what the audience should be looking for as we go
into the broadcast on Saturday? I can take it first, Zack.
I think it's going to be a strong race.
I think that throughout spring series we've seen lots of teams
kind of ebb and flow and perform and underperform.
I think there's a lot of other teams who probably trained
through spring series and we didn't even see how strong they
really are going to be this Saturday.
So I think in terms of how I'm thinking through the race, I
think it's going to be a lot more kind of nervous and anxious
than than last year. With SIG up attacking so early,
I kind of viewed that as as a more aggressive move.
If I'm not jinxing the race too hard, I think it's going to be a
little more predictable this year with a stronger field
overall, a lot of more marking going on, a lot more kind of cat
and mouse type games. But then I expect it to all blow
up at some point. You know, if I had the crystal
ball, I would love to love to report when, but that's part of
the beauty of the race. Zach Curious what what you
think? Yeah, I mean, first of all, I
think that's everything you said is totally accurate.
I think. I think it's going to be a great
race to call when you have so many potential teams in
contention. It has, you know, the potential
to just be a very, very exciting race.
But what I will say is that, and correct me if I'm wrong, but
there was no successful qualification from BKB last
year. Is that correct?
That's right. Well, yeah, that was the big
shock. They didn't make it.
And then, of course, this year, they're back with a vengeance.
I was going to say I'm, I'm just excited to you know, be there in
the infield and to to witness, you know how they approach this
race having not been able to participate last year.
And I saw that they had a massive alumni turn out last
year and of course they weren't even in their in the race.
And so I imagine their entire community is just ready and
excited to see them back on track.
The the pre race BKB tailgates always a a fun one to stop by.
I'll I'll probably try to swing over there at some point on
Saturday myself if if it's going on.
Yeah, I mean yeah, you just you look at the you know and it's
interesting because obviously when when you're whether you're
talking about the Little 500 or the Indy 500 or any race
qualifications don't necessarily mean that those are the absolute
strongest teams. You know, So looking at, you
know, the race from from the standpoint for those of you who
haven't watched it a lot or haven't really thought about the
strategy like it's really about. Who's in contend?
Who can stay in contention long enough?
Who can stay on the lead lap? Who can avoid accidents?
Who can, you know, not lose tremendous amounts of ground?
But then who has the strongest riders of the teams that have
survived to that point that they can put on the bike in the last,
you know, 5 laps, 10 laps, whatever.
And that's always the thing, I think, with both of these races,
but especially with the men's race, like it always feels like
it comes down to three or four teams and you can you think you
can guess as far as which team is going to play the strategy,
right? But you never entirely know
because they're just 1000 small variables, as I was talking
about with Katie earlier on the podcast, that can play into
things something as simple as the direction of the wind and
whether it's coming into your face, you know, coming, you
know, into Turn 3 or going out of Turn 4.
That's the kind of thing I think is fascinating and a lot of
times gets lost on people who haven't had a chance to watch
these things intently or be in them like you guys.
Completely agree Galen, and you alluded to it.
It's a Total War of attrition, 200 laps over 50 miles, never
going to win the race in the 1st 100 laps or so, but certainly
can lose. It is is a common saying and so
completely agree that I view, you know, potentially a little
bit colder weather. It looks like it won't be
raining as much. That could tear up the track a
little bit. I certainly think that it's
going to be somewhat kind of predictable, but then a bomb is
going to go off at at some point and the races is certainly going
to blow up. Especially when you get a lot of
teams who are very deep and strong and and realize that
typically that helps them like commit to their strategies more
robustly and I'd expect some fireworks to play out
definitely, for sure. Absolutely.
And I would say, and I remember thinking about this when my team
and I would ride back in the day and even when we would
communicate with other teams. The stronger you are as a team,
right, the more you're hoping for perfect weather, right?
Because you just want to be able to go out there and do what you
can do best. But, you know, sometimes if
things. Obviously we're not expecting
any rain or or terrible weather, but if the weather's crazy, if
the track's in poor condition, you know that it definitely
wouldn't favor a team that wasn't previously favored by any
means, but it certainly increases their probability of
success, right? Like if you can just stir up
some craziness. Obviously nothing illegal but no
impeding penalties. But yeah, you can make something
crazy happen. Then you got a shot and like
like you said, Galen, if you can make it through, you know, 95%
of the race and you are in those last 2015 ten laps, you got a
shot, anything can happen. But to that point, if you're at
lap 170 and 180 somewhere around that mark and you don't think
you have a sprinter capable of out sprinting anybody, maybe you
just make a break and you go for it.
Because it's at that point, it's now or never.
You know you're going to get beat out in the last two laps.
You give it a shot, everybody's there to win, so.
Last thing I'll ask you guys about, so you mentioned the
weather, so it's 58°, looks like it's going to be sunny, really
not a lot of chance of precipitation, about an 8-9 mile
an hour wind. How do you rate those conditions
in terms of of riding like what is ideal?
And and how? Close are we with those those
particular conditions? I would say that's pretty close
to ideal, except for that I would prefer it to like mist in
the morning or something to that effect.
I think moisture with the track is one of the most important
elements, more than wind, more than temperature as well.
Moisture is what keeps the cinders compacted, keeps the
cinders kind of performing more like concrete.
As that moisture decreases and it becomes drier, it functions
more like sand. And so we've all seen races and
if you've watched the race before you've seen those like
divots that form and and like mini little sandbanks.
For me that's the only thing that's that's missing 8 to 9
mile an hour winds. Not too bad high being 58 on on
Saturday, that's fantastic. That keeps riders cool.
It doesn't mean that they still of course have to hydrate with
the sun being there, but they won't be just sweating buckets
necessarily. What I'm most concerned about
though is is definitely the moisture on the track and I
think that's going to be one thing I'll be keeping an eye on
throughout the race. Yeah, As long as that track
stays compact and with consideration to track
conditions that we've seen in the past, this is as good as.
Yet I, you know, I think the, I think the ladies are going to
get some moisture in the morning on Friday, so that'll help the
track there. We'll see if that carries over
to Saturday. But yeah, I know that the race,
the the COVID makeup race, the one in 2021, I think if if you,
if anybody was there or well, nobody was there.
I was one of the only ones there.
But if you watch that broadcast, the the the way that the track
with the heat 'cause it was in late May and the lack of
moisture reacted, you had a lot of divots, you had a lot of
accidents as a result of track conditions and and that's
exactly what you're talking about.
So I I think we're avoiding that.
It's rained or going to rain like all week here except for
the race days. So we should be in pretty good
shape on that front. But well, guys, I'm looking
forward to hearing you both on the call.
Matt, you're going to be up upstairs.
I believe you're going to be calling from from the top with
Austin Platt, who's our play by play broadcaster.
Zach, you're our field expert. This is a new position that
we're trying out. Katie's doing this on the
women's side, you're doing on the men.
So we can get some more insights on what's going on as we see
what's going on in the pits, we see what's going on with with
strategy. So really looking forward to
having you both on and I appreciate you taking the time
to talk with us on the podcast today.
Absolutely. It's our pleasure, Galen.
Looking forward to it. All right.
Matt Magori. Yeah.
Matt Magori, Zach Horowitz joining us here on the show.
Be sure to tune in. Go to broadcast.iu.edu, 4:00 PM
start for the women. That's when the broadcast starts
on Friday. And then for the men's
broadcast, 2:00 start Eastern Time for all of that.
Again for Zach and Matt, I'm GAIL and Clavio.
Thanks for joining us here on the show.