FRIDAYYY April 25 Links and Banter
It's a wonderful day to play bikes.
[Last year, I was lucky enough to profile the Little 500 Novus Cycling team at a different publication and had a few fantastic interviews with the riders, including the podium-finishing women's team captain Dorothy Curran-Munoz and the men's captain Kobe Thompson.
This year, Dorothy was kind enough to take some time to chat about what happened in last year's race, what it meant to her, and what she's up to now. -AlmaOtter]
First off: it’s nearly been a year since your final Little 500 and your graduation from IU! What are you up to? Are you still cycling?
It is absolutely insane to look back on everything that has happened since my Little 500 and IU chapters came to a close. Somehow, it simultaneously feels like all the time, and no time, have passed. However, I suppose lots has changed: I moved to San Francisco on a whim, and most of my time is spent working at a bike shop, volunteering, and exploring the west coast on two wheels and two feet. My goal for the first year of post-grad life was to simply have fun and spend as much time outside as possible, and I can confidently say this mission was accomplished. My months have been spent hiking, skiing, rock climbing, and mountain-, gravel-, and road-biking… and working at a job I love when I’m not doing any of those other things!
The team you founded and spearheaded remains a going concern and even qualified in the top ten for this year’s race. How does it feel to watch them continue to succeed?
I really have no words for this one. Starting Novus and investing three years of my life into building it from the ground up was one of the hardest and proudest undertakings of my life, but watching my dear friends grow it into what it is now has filled me with a sense of joy that I honestly did not know my heart had room for. I laid the groundwork, but they have taken this team and sharpened its capacity as a space so full of camaraderie and mutual respect that I can feel it all the way from the other side of the country. For lack of better words, I am bursting at the seams with pride. This team and the women on it are one of my favorite things to be associated with.
Let’s talk last year’s race. In our interview, you said that you wanted a podium place. I don’t think you intended to do it this way, but a 3rd place photo finish sprint with a broken collarbone is an epic way to nail that goal. Reflecting back after a year, what did that podium finish mean to you and the team?
Even after all these months removed from that moment, I still struggle to find a way to express how meaningful it was to accomplish that goal. I suppose it is necessary to reflect on the entire three years of Novus, leading up to that moment - as we became a team that was taken seriously, I really struggled both as an individual rider and as the founder and captain of the team to shake the imposter syndrome feeling that many in this field feel. It was so daunting to go up against teams with so much more funding, knowledge and experience than us. Beyond the physical hardship that all teams and riders endure, I also felt the weight of belonging; how can a scrappy team, dubbed the “dark horse” -an unexpected, unlikely contender- feel completely confident going up against the very team that started the women’s race, and would be vying for their TENTH win?! I think I knew, deep down, that all that really mattered was grit and determination, but standing on the podium as one of the newer teams in the field, knowing all the additional hoops we had to jump through to get there, proved to me that you don’t have to fit a certain mould to succeed.
How did the first half of the race feel? At the halfway mark, Novus was sitting in 3rd and seemed to be responding to every move.
It kind of feels like a blur, but I remember feeling pretty confident and calm throughout the first half of the race. Of course, it was exhausting, but, to be completely honest, I felt so strong. I kept reminding myself that I had, in my career, already completed thousands of laps around that very track, and my competitors weren’t strangers to me. In fact, they were my friends! It also provided me with a lot of solace to remember that my teammates and I had already completed the hardest part of the entire race—we showed up for the early morning rides, late nights, and frigid, wet days at the track for months leading up to that day. I trusted in myself and, more importantly, I trusted in my teammates.
What happened in your crash? What was going through your mind? And did you immediately know that your collarbone was broken?
I honestly still have no idea. Turn three had been sketchy since the first few laps of the race, and it remained so until the very end. If you rewatch the final lap, you’ll see one of the main contenders jump about a foot off her saddle after fishtailing in the same turn where I had crashed 20 laps prior; it was just the nature of the cinder track. I think the combination of a fast pace, the dynamic of the turn, and a tight pack was just the perfect storm for anyone to rub wheels. After crashing, instinct kicked in, and I ripped my bike out of the pile and got back on. I felt the hurt immediately, but the real pain didn’t kick in until we walked away from the podium and the adrenaline wore off.
The team did a phenomenal job of keeping Novus up in the front pack while you were recovering. What was happening then? How did coach Tommy Domian approach the team’s strategy and your injury?
After what felt like a million years following the crash, I finally stumbled off the bike, a sobbing mess. Yes, the pain was great, but more gut-wrenching was the thought that, after all the years of hard work my teammates had dedicated to me and to Novus, I had lost the race for us in the blink of an eye. Following my crash, we lost the top-three position we had held for the entirety of the race, and fell almost a full lap down from the lead pack. With less than 20 laps to go, this felt like the end. I am emotional even remembering this feeling. It was truly devastating. But, if anyone thought Novus couldn’t do it without me, the laps following my crash disproved any semblance of this notion. My teammates sat me down and said, “we’ve got this.” As I caught my breath and assessed my condition, they fought tooth and nail to keep us in the race, each of them performing short, sprint sets to work back up to the front. To this day, I am in awe of their grit. Tommy and the rest of our pit crew reassured me that the choice was mine, and they supported whatever I wanted to do. I absolutely was not going to let the race I had dedicated years of my life to end on anyone’s terms but my own, so when I was ready, I got out to sprint a few laps to get us back to the pack. From there, we just had to keep up.
From lap 10 to the finish, it was all you for Novus. What was your approach? How were you feeling at that moment?
The tank that had been so full prior to my crash was depleted, and I felt it. I was so privileged to have been pushed by a field of women so fast and strong, but what that meant for the last ten laps was merely trying to hang on. After finding the pack on my last set, I sat until the final lap. Going into lap 100, I knew I had to be positioned in the front and outside of the pack, so I worked my way up. From there, the name of the game was to stay rubber side down and keep my position. The combination of the pain in my upper body and tired legs made the last lap one of the most physically demanding things I have ever endured. But, if not for anything else, I knew I had to leave every ounce of energy on the cinders for my Novus family.
I’m not a journalist and I am not neutral here. I was screaming and losing my mind when you sprinted to the finish line. The picture of the whole team holding up the trophy (with your right arm pretty clearly out of action) is absolute concentrated Little 5 joy. It’s such an exultant picture and it is so perfectly emblematic of a team just playing bikes together. Asking how that moment felt is silly, so I’ll rephrase it: What will you want to perfectly remember from that moment ten years from now?
Being the leader of these strong women for my years on Novus was one of the most meaningful and formative experiences of my life (and I’m sure it will remain as such, ten years from now). While there were only a few of us on the podium, and it was my hand holding the trophy in the air, that moment wouldn’t have been possible without the vast community of people who supported us every pedal stroke of the way - our parents, friends, the Domian family, and the many unsung heroes who spend hundreds of hours to put the race on. That moment, ten years from now, will remind me of what a special gift it was to have had this experience and built these connections.
It was a privilege to lead these women, watch them grow in strength and in confidence, and to be taught how to lead by them; it was a privilege to be surrounded by hundreds of people who wanted to support women and girls in sports; and, finally, it was a privilege to have had this opportunity to show myself and others that we CAN do hard things! I owe so much to Novus, to the Little 500 community, and to this experience.
