Маленькая 500: Велогонка студенческой Америки

Track cycling race
the bicycle race

The Little 500 (also known popularly as the "Little Five"), is a track cycling race held annually during the third weekend of April at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It is attended by more than 25,000 fans.

The race was founded in 1951 by Howard S. Wilcox, Jr., executive director of the Indiana University Foundation, who modeled the race after the Indianapolis 500 automotive race, which his father, Howard S. Wilcox, Sr. had won in 1919. Racers compete in teams of four, racing relay style for 200 laps along a quarter mile cinder track. Thirty three teams are selected in qualifications trials to compete in the main race. Money raised by the event funds scholarships for working Indiana University students. The event is similar to a Madison in that is is a relay but only one rider participates in a time. The events of the Little 500 were dramatized in the 1979 Academy Award winning movie Breaking Away, which depicts a group of Bloomington townies who enter the race as the "Cutters" (from the local Indiana limestone stonecutters) and defeat the favored fraternity teams. In the early 1980’s following the release of Breaking Away, the very successful Delta Chi fraternity’s cycling team left their house amidst a fallout and took the name Cutters as their now ‘independent’ team moniker. Their first race under this name was in 1984, which they won. The former fraternity team are now students, who are traditionally either Bloomington locals or at the very least non Greek, and have been tremendously successful, winning fifteen races that they have entered, with an average finish of 3.7, all while never finishing worse than 12th. The inaugural Women’s Little 500 was held in 1988. Four members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority completed a qualifications run in the 1987 men’s event on their 3rd and final attempt, but failed to qualify into the field of 33. In 1988, the IU Student Foundation launched the Women's Race. Thirty one teams competed in the first Women's Race which was won by an all freshman team, Willkie Sprint, representing Willkie Residential Hall. Kappa Alpha Theta has been the most successful Women's Team, qualifying for every race, winning eight times with an average finish of 3.1. The 2020 Men's and Women's Little 500 races were cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic. The race returned in 2021 but no spectators were allowed in the stadium due to Monroe County's, Indiana University's, and Big Ten Conference's COVID guidelines. Fans were allowed back to Bill Armstrong stadium for the 2022 races.

Billed as "The World's Greatest College Weekend," the race has expanded into a week of activities. The Women's Little 500 (100 laps; ), first held in 1988, is run each year. Other events such as the Little Fifty Running Relay Race and Alumni Races add to the festivities. During his run for presidency, then senator Barack Obama made an unannounced visit to the Little 500 women's race in 2008. as of 2019, the Little 500 has raised a total of more than $2 million in scholarship funds.

Standardised track bicycles are used with a 46x18 gear), coaster brake racing bicycles with 700c wheels, 32mm tires and flat rubber pedals. The unusual specification originated with the famous AMF Roadmaster bicycles of the 1960s and 1970s, once the sole bicycle type used in the event. The men's and women's version differs only in frame size. Every year a new version of the specified bicycle type is purchased, with two given to each team. A deposit of $400 must be placed for both bikes. At the end of the season, teams are given the option to keep their race bikes or to return them to IUSF in exchange for their deposit. Returned former race bikes are kept at the track and rented out to teams that lack bicycles meeting Little 500 specifications. The current specification supplier is State Bicycle Company.

Indiana University Student Foundation, as well as Riders Council, a group of students that make up the rules committee for the race, also offer fall events for students to participate in. They also offer skills clinics. Events in the Fall Series include ITTs, Street Sprints, CycloCross and Tuesday Night Race Series. Fall Series results do not count toward Little 500.

Thirty years later, in 2009, Smithville produced a half hour long documentary, Ride Fast, Turn Left, that followed four teams preparing for and competing in the race. In February 2015, One Day in April was released which depicts two men's and two women's teams' preparation and dedication preceding the race. A Bollywood movie Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, based on the Little 500 and an adaptation of Breaking Away, was made in the year 1992, starring Aamir Khan. Highlights of the 1981 race were shown on ESPN and the first major coverage was by CBS Sports Saturday for the 1982 race. CBS's auto racing announcer, Ken Squier called the race, with Dave Blase providing color commentary. The races have also been broadcast live on the Indiana University student radio station WIUX and on television since 2002 on AXS. tv (formerly known as HDNet), which is owned by Indiana University alumnus Mark Cuban.