Though the majority of campus will turn out to watch Little 5 events, only those racing can fully understand the work that has gone into preparing for this week.
Little 5 riders each year range in experience from first-timers to veterans. While some things get easier over the years, one aspect of training riders of all levels agreed upon: to get good results, you have to train hard and a lot.
"The practices started off at an hour, then an hour and a half and then kind of got more intense," said first-year Perrin Duncan, a first-time rider. "Towards the end we went for closer to an hour again, but more intensely."
Duncan decided to train for Little 5 in order to stay active during her transition from high school to college.
"I didn't want to do a sport in college," she said, "but I needed something to keep me active and something that was fun and a release."
The Alpha Phi team started biking in earnest in March, Duncan said, and has been riding about 20 miles during each training session.
Sophomore Joe Haynes, lone member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon team, said he averages about 25 to 30 miles each time he goes out and tries to ensure he gets on a bike at least four times a week. He began preparing for the race in February.
Haynes has always known that he wanted to race at some point during his college career but was not a cyclist until this year.
"I would ride bikes around my neighborhood, but that was when I was 10," Haynes said. "I probably hadn't been on a bike for five years before this. It's been interesting."
While the workouts themselves have been strenuous, the worst part of training, Haynes said, has been the solitary part of it.
"I completely miss the team aspect of it," he said. "It sucks training by yourself. It's so boring."
Fifth-year Stephanie Sladnick is a rider on the Pi Beta Phi team. She rode in Little 5 last year and has cycled in other races, as well.
"Last year I went into it completely blind," she said. "I trained, but I didn't know what I was training for or what I was really doing. I still don't really know what I'm doing, but it definitely helps to have a basis for what to expect."
As the only returning member of the Pi Phi team, Sladnick has taken on more of a leadership role this year.
"Everyone asks me all the questions," she said. "I try to answer, but sometimes I'm making it up. I say, 'This is what I would do.'"
Sladnick began training in February and said she has averaged about 15 miles during each training session. Instead of focusing on distance, she has had her team work on cycling as quickly as they can for 50 minutes, which is the estimated duration of the 18-mile criterium.
Her team also practiced on the criterium course and worked on sprint starts.
"I've been doing long endurance workouts," Sladnick said, "but then sometimes just practicing the sprints and sometimes incorporating sprints into a longer workout."
Training is needed as much for the rules of the road and cycling jargon as for speed. Aside from the training necessary to ride as fast as possible come race time, there are also technical and safety aspects to be learned.
"The first time I rode my bike outside, I fell," said Duncan, who labeled herself "a clumsy person" and displayed a bruise on the back of her leg. "But, you get down. You get back up again."
The technicality of "clipping in"-when cyclists attach their shoes to the pedals-has caused Duncan another set of problems. Though she said it has become "second nature" to clip in, it's not always as easy to remember to clip out.
"Just the other day I was coming to a stop while talking to someone," she said. "I just forgot to clip out, so I fell over."
Haynes has mixed feelings about his injury-free training.
"I was kind of hoping that I'd get my first crash out of the way beforehand," he said. "I wasn't going to wreck intentionally, obviously, but it would have been nice to know what it's like and to see that it's not that bad."
Going into the race, Duncan, Haynes and Sladnick each feel anticipation and excitement that the effort spent in training will finally pay off.
"I have loved training," Duncan said. "I don't really care too much about the competition part. Of course everyone wants to win, but it's not the death of me if I don't."