Growing up in Naperville, Will Wagner didn’t cycle. Hockey and lacrosse were his sports of choice in high school.
Now, the 22-year-old is a two-time winner of the largest collegiate bike race in the country.
Late last month, Wagner rode to victory in the Little 500, an annual cycling race held at Indiana University’s Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington. Modeled after the famed Indianapolis 500, the race was made widely popular by the 1979 film “Breaking Away,” starring Dennis Quaid and Dennis Christopher.
And oh did Wagner break away to triumph.
“We lapped the whole field,” Wagner said, speaking by phone Thursday.
Wagner, who was set to graduate from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in information systems and business analytics Saturday, competed on a team with three other cyclists.
The Little 500, which attracts thousands of fans each year, is composed of a women’s race and a men’s race. The women’s race is 100 laps (25 miles). The men’s is 200 laps (50 miles). Riders compete in teams of four, with the fields — for both men and women — totaling 33 teams.
The race is essentially a relay, with riders switching off who’s on the track.
Wagner anchored for his team — the Black Key Bulls — so it was up to him to finish the race. The moment he did was “the most surreal feeling ever,” Wagner said.
“I don’t know, it leaves you speechless every time I think about it,” he said.
Wagner was born and raised in Naperville, he said. He attended Benet Academy High School in Lisle. Before college, Wagner didn’t race. His dad did — albeit “a long time ago,” he said — while his mom ran marathons.
When he set off to Indiana University, his dad wanted him to check out the Little 500, Wagner said. Within the first few months on campus, he attended a meeting about becoming involved. He hasn’t looked back since.
There are three kinds of teams that compete in the Little 500, those fielded by fraternity and sorority organizations, residence halls and independent groups, Wagner said. The Black Key Bulls fall into the third category.
Joining was “definitely a grind,” Wagner said.
“I had no previous cycling experience and just right off the bat, I got put into some pretty intense training weeks. … I’d say, on average, I’d spend 12 to 13 hours a week (training), whether that’s riding and lifting on top of that.”
About a month before the big race, aspiring teams vie for a spot in the field through qualifications, according to Peter Schulz, Little 500 race director. Teams get three attempts to qualify. This year, 38 teams attempted to qualify in the men’s race and a record 36 teams for the women’s race, Schulz said.
Wagner’s sophomore year, the Black Key Bulls didn’t qualify.
“We had a really strong team, probably projected to be one of the favorites in the race,” he said. “(But) during qualifications, we kind of messed up” and didn’t make the cut.
As he went into his junior year, Wagner was the only returning rider of the group that didn’t qualify, he said.
“That put me in a position where I was automatically a leader,” he said. He and the new Black Key Bulls members came in with a new fire and ultimately pulled off the kind of comeback that’s the stuff of dreams, returning to win it all last year, he said. Then they went and made it a two-peat with this year’s victory.
“I think that struggle definitely made us stronger,” Wagner said.
As he looked ahead to graduation, Wagner said joining the Black Key Bulls his freshman year “was probably the best life decision I ever made.”
“I think even just joining has not only helped me become a better cyclist but a better person,” he said.
The Little 500’s tenure has stretched on for more than 70 years. It was founded in 1951 by Howdy Wilcox Jr., then president of the Illinois University Foundation, as a means of raising money for student scholarships, according to Schulz. Wilcox was inspired by his father, who had been an Indy 500 driver.
The Little 500 started out as just a men’s race. The women’s race followed 37 years later in 1988.
Since its inception, the Little 500 has contributed more than $2.5 million to student scholarships and causes, according to a race news release.
For the past two years, funds raised through races have gone towards supporting mental health on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus.
Schulz, a graduate of Indiana University and former Little 500 rider himself, said this year’s race was “phenomenal.”
“There are few things guaranteed in life — death, taxes and an electric atmosphere at Bill Armstrong Stadium, of course,” Schulz quipped.
After graduation, Wagner is moving to Chicago for a job as a business analyst. He’s “pumped” to be closer to Naperville, where his family still resides, he said.
Post-college, Wagner said he hopes to continue cycling. Maybe even get into running.
“I think I just have a hard time sitting still,” he said.
