Twice as nice: Melanzana repeats as Women's Little 500 champ
Grace Washburn is a veteran of the Women's Little 500 and knows better than to ever feel overconfident at any point before or during the race. But she had a feeling it was going to be Melanzana Cycling's day again in the 35th edition on Friday.
The signs were all there: the defending champs, who qualified 13th last year, did so again this year. The lap counter was wearing an eggplant costume, like last year. And last night, the hotel room they slept in was decorated with Cutters paraphernalia and other bike related items, including a locker with the number, you guessed it, 13.
"So we took that as a sign," Washburn said.
But Melanzana banked on more than omens and superstition, especially in a year with only one of its four top riders back. That would be Abby Green, one of three seniors, with Washburn and Lauren Etnyre, who were joined by freshman Nora Abdelkader, a Bloomington North grad, for this 100-lap go-around.
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Melanzana and a few other teams had to work together to track down Teter, which had pulled away by half a lap halfway through. They did with 20 laps to go but it took 10 more before everything fell into place for the squad clad in yellow shirts as 2022 champs.
Melanzana, Teter, Delta Gamma all squabbled over the top spot down the stretch before Melanzana took advantage after a set of exchanges gave them a chance to dart in front. It wasn't close from then on, closing the book on a cool, cloudy, wet day in front of strong crowd at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
As Washburn rounded the final curve, she finally felt secure enough to raise her hands in triumph, crossing the finish line with a winning time of 1:12.23, 10 seconds in front of Teter with top qualifier Alpha Chi Omega sneaking across in third ahead of Delta Gamma by .137 seconds.
"When I turned around in Turn 4 and I realized no one was there, a complete wave of emotions because I'm a senior and I'm about to graduate," Washburn said. "And then last year, I had to take a year off because I raced (for another team) in 2021, so it's just incredible.
"All the heart-felt stuff that I felt for Little 5 in general, like now, it's just waved away because I just won."
2022 recap: Bloomington North grad Grace Williams leads Melanzana Cycling to women's Little 500 title
Melanzana, which had showed its chops by placing second in the Team Pursuit competition, is the first repeat winner since Kappa Alpha Theta in 2017-18 and Green joins the short list of riders to win more than one title.
"It's amazing," Green said. "It never gets old. It's one of those things, you think you have what it takes but it blows your mind, every time. Because the people and the tradition and all the work that goes into it. I'm just really, really grateful."
She did it this time with three new teammates.
"I think it just really goes to show Melanzana has done so much before us," Green said. "The alumni built such an amazing culture and program that I'm just lucky to be a part of. We lost three amazing people that I miss so much, but then we get to meet all these amazing (new) people each year.
"It's a legacy and it's going to keep going after us."
Another 'townie' on top
One person who can do that is Abdelkader, who rode in her first Little 5. It is the second year in a row Melanzana has won with a former Cougar on board, with Grace Williams, now a pro bike racer, delivering a strong performance in 2022.
"Being a townie and this being such a huge thing in Bloomington, it feels so cool to be a part of this big thing with girls I love," Abdelkader said. "All our hard work paid off."
Like her teammates, there was just a bit of shock and surprise that they were able to do it again.
"I feel like we went into it knowing we were champs but we were not really like, 'OK, we're going to win this,'" Abdelkader said. "We were just having fun and it kind of happened."
Time to go
It took the first 50 to thin the crowd a bit, as the peloton shrank from 18 after 15 laps to a dozen after the next 15.
Nine teams were within four seconds of the lead after 40 and then during a series of exchanges around lap 46, Teter zoomed in front. It didn't take long for them to establish a 16-second lead.
"I think I was just trusting in our coach and us that we could get ourselves out of that little hole and that I knew we were super strong," Green said. "Teter is an amazing team and it was definitely really scary because we knew how strong they were. We just had to trust each other and made it work."
Teter began switching riders about every five laps but by the 75th, the lead was down to eight seconds and getting smaller as the handful of chasers now down to only six on the lead lap. Five laps later, DG was in front and the fight to the finish was on.
"We were lucky enough to work with some of the other teams out there," Green said. "But also we knew we had different strengths and relying on each other."
DG gave the lead up four laps later and it was a battle between only Melanzana and Teter. Etnyre bridged the gap and Washburn was in the saddle when the chance to take over presented itself during a Teter exchange.
"No part of that was comfortable." said Green of ticking down the laps until handing off to Washburn, runner-up in the pre-race individual time trials. "Every time we went out there, James (Welch), our coach, just like, 'Go as hard as you can. We're so close.'
"So I went out for my last set of laps, Grace looked at me was like, 'These are our last laps of Little 5.' It's supposed to hurt. And you want to end with nothing left in the tank."
WOMEN'S LITTLE 500 RESULTS: 1. Melanzana Cycling 1:12:23.665; 2. Teter 1:12:34.246; 3. Alpha Chi Omega 1:12:53.662; 4. Delta Gamma 1:12:53.779; 5. Independent Council 1:12:33.343; 6. RideOn Cycling; 7. SKI; 8. Kappa Alpha Theta; 9. Kappa Kappa Gamma; 10. CSF Cycling; 11. Alpha Gamma Delta; 12. Kappa Delta; 13. Novus; 14. Sigma Kappa; 15. Phi Gamma Nu; 16. Gamma Phi Beta; 17. Cru Cycling; 18. Alpha Omicron Pi; 19. Theta Phi Alpha; 20. Phi Mu; 21. Bison Cycling; 22. Chi Omega; 23. Alpha Delta Pi; 24. Sigma Delta Tau; 25. Alpha Sigma Alpha; 26. Alpha Epsilon Phi; 27. Delta Zeta.
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Twice as nice: Melanzana repeats as Women's Little 500 champ
