Cyclist Jarred Young of Overland Park sprints to the lead during a heat of the 2014 Tour of Lawrence Street Sprints between Seventh and Ninth streets along Vermont Street on Friday, June 27, 2014.

It takes a specific kind of cyclist to win a street sprint. Friday night at the Tour of Lawrence’s opening races, Venasa Ray, Mike Rickey and Jarred Young proved the 200-meter scoot down Vermont Street suited their strengths.

Ray topped the women’s field, Rickey triumphed in the masters (40-plus years old) category and Young outdid the rest of the men competing at the sixth annual event.

In his fourth straight year at the downtown sprints, Young, of Lenexa, won for the first time. The 39-year-old deemed it “kind of unexpected” considering he only rides his bike a couple times a week a few months out of the year. His self-described “wing it” approach involves putting his head down and pumping his legs as hard as he can.

“I just go out there and cuss and try to go faster than the guy in front of me,” Young said, grinning.

His laid-back personality didn’t seem to hurt him once the competition began. Young’s aggressive nature took over then, and served him well.

“It beats sitting on the sofa. I guess it’s just a challenge,” he said. “You can’t win ’em all.”

A sprinter down to the core, Young hadn’t planned to partake in today’s circuit race on the Kansas University campus.

“I’m not really in that good of shape,” he said, half-joking, “but I guess I’ve got to come out and start.”

No matter how it goes, he’ll spend the following day relaxing and recovering, instead of sprinting in the downtown criterium.

“Sunday, I was gonna go to Schlitterbahn (Waterpark),” Young revealed. “I’d probably do better in the Sunday race, actually.”

Ray, from Kansas City, Mo., will compete each day at the Tour of Lawrence with her Trek Midwest Cycling team. Now a three-year veteran of the city races, she always takes on the street sprints.

“It’s more for the crowd,” she said of the appeal, which lies in the speed on display for the spectators who lined the asphalt as the cyclists whizzed on by, heat after heat.

Friday night, the 39-year-old said, stands out because it’s more about fun than having a specific plan of attack.

“The main thing is not to burn yourself out on the first couple of heats,” she said, adding the only other variables to process were which gear to start in for the slight uphill and trying to figure out which competitor was the fastest.

Ray embraced the chance to just take off for a burst.

“But I like the criterium on Sunday, too,” she added. “It’s flat. Not hilly.”

As Young put it, the sprints aren’t for everyone.

“That’s just more my forte,” he said. “A lot of these guys are gonna hand it to me (in the campus circuit race).”