In last year’s Little 500 women’s bike race, Lauren Britt was passed on the final lap, and her Teter Cycling team came in third place.
For the past year, Britt was determined not to let that happen again.
So in Friday’s 32nd Women’s Little 500, the senior from Columbus North again found herself locked in a tight battle for first place on the final lap at Indiana University’s Armstrong Stadium. This time, Britt made the decisive pass to give Teter the victory.
“I held onto that for the entire year,” Britt said. “This year, I wanted to be the person who passed and not got passed. It’s a pretty strong feeling to hold onto for a whole year, and to execute it on race day felt extra special this year.”
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Making the victory even more special was Britt’s comeback from a big scare in September. The former North soccer player was riding her bike home from a time trial race in the Morgan Monroe State Forest when she was hit by a car. She tried to veer around the car, but was left with multiple fractures in her left hand and fingers, as well as a minor concussion.
After about two weeks of relative inactivity, Britt had to complete occupational therapy and was restricted to riding her bike indoors only until December.
“The winter months of Little 500 training are the toughest because riding inside every day for multiple hours is mentally challenging,” Britt said. “This basically initiated the start of my Little 500 indoor training about a month earlier than I had expected.”
Britt picked up a big confidence boost the week before the Little 500 when she won the individual time trial. She rode the four laps (one mile) in 2 minutes, 36 seconds.
That speed came in handy for Britt, who estimated she rode five sets for about 25 to 30 of the 100 laps for Teter, including final seven. The Delta Gamma rider she passed at the end had finished second in the time trial.
“I knew for five full laps prior to that final lap that we were going to win that race,” Britt said. “I was very strategic, and I positioned myself the way I wanted to.”
Teter found itself about a half-lap down early in the race after Ski (IU’s ski and snowboard club) made an attack 15 laps in.
“This race was an unprecedented race. There has never been a race where an attack has happened as early as Lap 15, and we did not go with the initial attack. So we spent about 50 laps playing catch-up. We knew what they were doing wasn’t sustainable, and at the end, we were able to catch up.”
With Ski in the lead, Delta Gamma was in second and Teter in third for a majority of the race. Teter would catch up, then fall back when it made an exchange.
Then around Lap 75, Teter’s Corrine Miller, a freshman from Carmel, passed the team’s pit area and gave her teammates a smile. She had caught up with Ski and Delta Gamma.
“We knew that’s when we were in good shape,” Britt said. “We had firmly closed the gap, and there was no shaking us off at that point. But the beginning and middle did not go as well as we had hoped.”
Ski made one last attack on Lap 98, but it turned out to be too early. On the final lap, it came down to Teter and Delta Gamma.
“My strategy for those final laps was to conserve my energy,” Britt said. “My goal was to not be the one pulling on the backstretch. On Lap 100, I was very happy that I was sitting behind Delta Gamma, and going into the final 20 seconds of the race, I gave everything I had with one final kick, and fortunately, it was enough.”
Teter finished one bike-length ahead of Delta Gamma. The margin of victory was about two-tenths of a second — 1 hour, 12 minutes, 42.291 seconds to 1:12:42.494.
“Our team had put in so much work to come back from a half-lap down, and at that point, you need to finish the job. I was thinking of the other girls who had helped me get back to that point. Our coach (John Becker) reminds us that water boils at 212 degrees, and at 211 degrees, it’s just hot water at that point. You need to put in that last degree of effort to get boiling water, and I think I did that.”
Erika Wilson from Bloomington and Becca Gronceski from Valparaiso, along with Kinsey Allen, a senior from Columbus North, also were part of the Teter squad. Becker, a professional cyclist from Fishers, and a Little 500 alumni, was the coach.
“I think this was a long time coming,” Britt said. “This wasn’t a fluke. This was three years of hard work for me and my teammates and coach. With his training and our year of work, we were so prepared and confident we were going to win. We just had to execute.”
