Devil take the Hindmost

Little 500 series events in the spring are like London buses, you wait all year for one and then two come along at once! Saturday at Noon sees the 2009 version of Miss-N-Out (otherwise known as ‘the Devil’). This event sees riders seeded based on their ITT performance and placed in a bracket which after 3 round ends up in a six rider final (the brackets can be found here). Each heat has between 5 and 8 riders and each lap the final rider to cross the line will be eliminated. This continues until 2 or 3 riders remain who then move on to the next round. The highest seeded riders line up adjacent to the gutter so are able to control the pace and of course have the shortest distance around the track, The race takes two forms A, a succession of short sprints or B, a steady but inexorably increase in pace by the lead rider that burns off the other riders.
Racing in the early round is often pedestrian given the high disparity in rider quality but in later rounds things heat up and the lead rider can come under pressure. Remember you only have to beat one rider each lap so don’t use too much energy! Last years winners were Issac Neff (seeded 1st) and Sarah Rieke (seeded 2nd), neither of whom will be riding this year.
This event is different to ITTs as you have to actually race your opponents (in theory at least- riders tend not to take the initiative as much as they could). However everyone has the same gear so track position is hugely important and the higher seeded riders often progress to the final.
Outside of the top ten ranked riders look for Jackie Moeller (Teter-finalist last year), Kristina Heath (DG), Julie Panzica (KD), Clayton Feldman (Cutters-2nd last year), Matt Neibler (DTD), Graham Gifford (Dodds) and Ren-Jay Shei (BKB) to compete for their respective wins. These riders have some road racing experience and the sort of stop-start efforts required in these races may come in handy in ‘the Devil’, Of course in those races not everyone has the same gear ratio which is the great equalizer!

Team Teter dominated the 2008 MissnOut (photo-idsnews.com)