Cutter Dix

A friend of mine who doesn't know anything about Little 500 asked me what is was all about. I explained like this, 'Thirty Three teams ride 50miles on a cinder lap and have to exchange riders a minimum of 10 times, and at the end of the race the Cutters win'.
The previous two years Cutter victories have been almost routine in contrast to yesterdays win. Down half a lap before lap 100 and then hit with a 3second penalty with just 25 laps to go and they still found themselves hitting the front with 1lap to go. The result was then never in doubt as Eric Young flat out CRUSHED everyone else. Although Young will get the plaudits the real hero of the day was Clayton Feldman who on two occasions solidly closed big gaps as he rode his 95 laps. Schroeder and Lusk almost rode solid races which enabled the greatest team in L5 history to take another victory.
Photo credit- Velonews

However it really shouldn't have happened. Much of the talk in the watering holes of Bloomington last eve and on the message boards was to do with the performance or lack thereof by the other teams. The Cutters were on the floor and the other teams refused to put their foot on their throats to finish them off. The pits of the contending teams are all so close together that in those 10 laps that the Cutters were half a lap down those teams with all their Little5 experience should have got their heads together and come up with a plan. No one team can be blamed but the collective effort could have been greater. Those teams that finished in the top ten should have improved their position by one place as 10-20 laps of hard collaboration would have lapped the Cutters.

Full results are here.

Race reports from VeloNews and IDSnews.