The Little 500 is an annual 200-lap bicycle race held at IU's Bill Armstrong Stadium each April, modelled loosely on the Indianapolis 500. Teams of four riders take turns on their bikes — a single-gear bike with no brakes, racing on a quarter-mile cinder track — over the course of several hours. The race was made famous nationally by the 1979 film Breaking Away, which used the actual race footage and Bloomington locations.
The race has been held since 1951, originally as a fundraiser for student scholarships. It has grown into the biggest event in Bloomington's annual calendar, with the week leading up to it involving parties, qualifying races, and a kind of organised mayhem that only a college town can produce. Teams train for months; the competition for spots in the race is genuine. There is also a women's race, started in 1988.
Tickets sell out in advance, but the atmosphere extends well beyond the stadium. Race week in Bloomington is an event worth timing a visit around if you can.