IU’s Little 500 tradition began including women in the 1950s, just not on two wheels. While the men tore up Bill Armstrong Stadium, the women were relegated to a short tricycle race in Assembly Hall. Women weren’t taken seriously on the track until 1987, when a team from the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority nearly qualified for the men’s race. The next year, coeds got their own event at the Little 500, and it enters its 25th year on April 20. Although the female cyclists race 100 laps, half the distance of the men’s race, they are every bit the campus royalty as their male counterparts. “It was a much bigger deal than I’d thought,” says Sarah Fredrickson, who was part of the winning team 10 years ago and remains an elite cyclist today. “Everyone on campus knew who I was.”