On Tuesday afternoon, riders in Little 5 traveled out to the Putnam County Airport just beyond Walmart to race for a spot in Friday's street sprints down College Street.
The one kilometer time trial takes place on Ballard Lane leading up to airport and consists of one curve at the start, a slight downhill, a gentle hill up then a flat sprint to the finish.
On this day, the course was made a bit difficult with the sometimes shifting winds coming in from the west. The riders start out facing west, and then turn north for the majority of the course. If the wind shifted in a more northwesterly manner, the riders had to contend with that and their hurting legs after going up the hill.
"Today's a little bit windy but not too bad," said senior Cameron Huffman of team Phi Kappa Psi. "It's in your face as you begin, but as you get around the corner, it's all uphill from there."
The key for getting a good time is to get off to a good start and carry the speed around the corner down the hill. When the riders start going up the gradual hill, they must try to maintain their speed as much as possible and come off sprinting with whatever they have left.
"The wind really got to me three quarters of the way through," said sophomore Mike Osborn of team Phi Gamma Delta. "I actually thought my start was the best part of the race."
The top three riders for the men are as follows: Mac Metcalf of Beta Theta Pi with a time of 1:21.70, Max Blankenhorn of Alpha Tao Omega with 1:24.70 and Cameron Huffman of Phi Kappa Psi with 1:24.36.
For the women, the top riders were: Chrissy Wildt of Kappa Kappa Gama with 1:33.28, Arezoo Nazari of Alpha Phi with 1:37.71 and Addie McDonnell of Alpha Phi with 1:37.93.