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Back Home Again In<br />
Indiana<br />
THE STORY OF THE LITTLE 500<br />
Every spring in Bloomington, Indiana something<br />
special happens. Students and townies,<br />
dorms and fraternities, faculty and alumni,<br />
Greeks and independents all come together for<br />
a bicycle race. But not just any race. You won’t<br />
find expensive bikes, pro riders, or flashy sponsorships.<br />
There’s no cash prize, and for many riders,<br />
no second chance. A years’ worth of sweat<br />
and tears comes down to 200 laps around a dirt<br />
track on a single speed bike designed half a century<br />
ago… this is the Little 500, and we’ve been<br />
doing it for 62 years now.<br />
You might have seen the 1987 movie “Breaking<br />
Away,” a work of fiction based on a very real<br />
event. But it’s just that—fiction. Non-students<br />
cannot compete, there’s no cafeteria brawls<br />
30 URBANVELO.ORG<br />
By Zachary Woodward<br />
Photos by Bruce Carver, www.brucecarverphoto.com<br />
between Greeks and townies, and you’re certainly<br />
not allowed to duct-tape your feet to your<br />
pedals during the race... but it makes for a good<br />
movie, right? Long before Hollywood tried to<br />
capture the magic of “Lil’ Five” students were<br />
pouring their heart and soul into the event, and<br />
they’ll continue doing so long after people have<br />
forgotten about that movie. But really, most<br />
people just don’t know the history. Until you’ve<br />
seen the blood, the sweat, the off-season training<br />
rides, the tears of anguish and the ecstasy of<br />
victory you can’t really know. I thought I did, yet<br />
this year I was able to see the event through the<br />
eyes of someone who was there at the beginning,<br />
my unassuming, incredibly nice 81-year old grandmother,<br />
Wanda Coats Woodward.
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