2008 Zimmerman MS Bike Ride

Monday, March 30, 2009

Race Report Disclaimer

One can only write what one knows about. I find it a privledge writing the Blog for ZMotion, but I can only report events that I either witness first hand or someone tells me about (email, phone, text, ..). Lately there has been a distinct lack of feedback from Racer's and I fear that the blogs tend to be biased towards the Masters (but they HAVE been kicking butt) because I can't participate in or watch every single race.

Please, Please, share your race stories with me. You can either tell me about it and I can write it up or just send me the text and I will post it on your behalf. We are all doing well as a team and each person has their own personal success stories. This is YOUR Blog so share YOUR story.

Mark Hewitt

Race Report - Bike America @ "The Dump"

For anyone that thinks that South Florida is all flat, they haven't tried racing at Vista View Park (aka. The Dump). This is an old landfill that has 2 climbs (one to the finish line) and NO recovery. It truly separates the strong from everyone else.

The story of the day was Pedro in Masters 35+. Around a third of the way into the race, Pedro found himself in a break with around 10 guys (which shrunk to 9 over time) with Jody doing a lot of work early on (Steve had flatted out and there was a no Free Lap rule). The attacks started right away and kept coming. Pedro was isolated with three Bike America guys (and some others) and had to race super smart. Jeff tried super hard to get up to Pedro in the break knowing that he was isolated. Towards the end, one of the lead guys managed to get away solo, so the race was then for 2nd. With a drag race up the final hill, Pedro timed it to perfection to snag the field sprint and 2nd overall. Jeff then ended up dropping the field on the last lap up the big hill and solo'd in for 10th behind the 9 in Pedro's break.

In the Pro 1, 2, the super strong Frank Travisio managed to pretty much drop the entire field but the dynamic duo of Juan and Hector both placed in the top 6th.

Race Report - Bike America @ Brian Piccolo

There is something really cool about going away for a weekend of racing where you only have to worry about eating, sleeping and racing your bike. But when an FPS race in practically in your "back yard" it is so nice to not to have to travel.

As most of you know, Brian Piccolo Park has a dedicated road cacing course that is very technical and shaped roughly like a capital B. The day was overcast and it was crazy windy but ZMotion was there to represent.

The Masters racing was fast and furious as always, in the final 3rd of the 45+ Race, Jeff was away first with someone else and then finally solo for almost fifteen minutes (with Chris doing major blocking) and was heartbreakingly reeled in with just one lap to go.

In the Masters 35+, there was one real breakaway with potential and that was covered by Vinny but was again reeled in. The finish was led out by a hard charging Grant Potter but I guess Jeff was on the warpath because he hung right up there for 3rd. We also secured several other places in the top 20.

In the Pro 1,2 race we were happy to have Juan swell our ranks. He attacked from the very first lap was joined several laps later by a few other strongmen and they were GONE. The race field was shattered by this show of strength with less than half of the original field finishing. As it came down to the final spring, Juan held on for an awesome 2nd place. What a great thing it is to have him on the team.

The day was marked by a series of crashes which included Vinny and Mark in the 35+, Adam and Joel in the Cat 4's but luckily no one was serious injured. The other notable events include Billy placing 5th (or 6th?) in the Masters 55+, Ashley getting 3rd in the Women’s Cat 4, and David the Jr. placing 4th (or 5th?). Congrats all.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Race Report - Pinellas Park Circuit Race

After Saturdays super tight course, the wide open 2 mile circuit seemed so much more bike friendly, but that didn't mean slow. I keep on trying to figure out what these guys are eating for breakfast that I am not, because they need to share!!!!

With a dramatic win in the Master's 35+ on Saturday, the team was primed and ready to show that winning is the ZMotion way of doing business. The race (for 35+) was 14 laps around the course with a pretty good wind on the back side. Early into the race Pedro was seen off the front and later a six man break formed with some really strong dudes and, of course, Captain Jeff. They were away for lap after lap and ZMotion did some solid blocking to help the gap stay, but with about 3 laps to go they were reeled in. Then out of nowhere Jody flew solo off the front and the field grossly underestimated his strength. Jody was solo with 2 laps to go, then 1 lap to go till finally he crossed the line in Numero UNO. Congrats!!! Since the 35+ team is also trying to win the team points, they stacked the results getting Jeff in 5th, Vinnie in 8th, Amir in 10th, Chris in 10th and Joe in 15th. I think we are now tops in the team category.

ZMotion had representation in almost every category with some notables being Adam Goldfarb at 10th in Cat 4, David Cueli at 7th in Cat 5 and 9th in Junior 15-16. In the Masters 45+ we had 3 guys in the top 20 with Shaun in 7th, Raife in 10th and Chuck in 19th.

In the premier event with the Pro 1, 2 guys, we again saw breakaways look like they were going to stick and then come back. Our man Hector once again made sure that everyone knew that we came for some serious racing and placed a solid 5th. Way to go!!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Race Report - Tampa Downtown Crit

Today was another red letter day for Zmotion Racing Team. We christened a brand new course in style with great results. The course was almost 1 mile with 6 turns and varying widths which made for lots of twisting and turning while the many patches of bricks added some bumps to the mix.

Another interesting thing was the addition of an Amatuar Finale where the top racers in each category got to duke it out.

In the 45+ race Chuck was our top finisher in 10th, but Shaun and Raife also qualified for the Finale.

The 35+ was all Jeff, all the time. The field was strung out the entire time but when Brian Lancaster attacked, Jeff was on him like white on rice. They bridged up to a 3rd guy and that breakaway was gone. The z-team did some solid blocking on the front to make sure it stuck. Jeff had a plan to attack with two turns to go and executed it to perfection to chalk up his 2nd win of the season.

Other 35+ guys to qualify for the Finale included Karl, Amir, Mark and Chris. Speaking of the Finale, the race was strung out from the gun and by the time half the race was over, so was half the field. Our intrepid leader Jeff tried bunny hopping the curve (he failed) and big power guy Chris was drilling it in the front with one lap to go until he basically got shoved into a barrier. You win some, you lose some.

The final race of the night was the 75 minute Pro,1,2 race and it was memorable. With a large field loaded with Florida's strongest riders the race was FAST. Hector once again made Zmotion proud and slipped into a four man break that was flying. Zmotion again showed excellent teamwork and worked up front to make the break stick. The break actually lapped the entire field and moved right up to the front of the field. The last few laps were so awesome to watch with Hector in perfect position in fifth or sixth position. Hector lit up the sprint to come in 3rd. Wow!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Race Report - Polk Country Circuit Race



Stop the presses, front page news!! The ZMotion Pro 1,2 team scores our first ever Pro 1,2 Victory. The Polk Country Circuit Race was held on a brand new race course in a beautiful venue by Lake Alfred near Lakeland. It was a 2 mile circuit race with a looooong straightaway directly into a stiff headwind and an uphill on one end bracketed by a technical downhill on the other end. The weather was perfect and made for a great day of racing.

ZMotion had representation in pretty much every race of the day, but the big news was the breakout victory by the Pro 1,2 team. As the entire P12 team showed in the ZMotion R/V we knew we were in for a treat. The race started early afternoon with almost 50 guys on the starting line. The pace was fast, the course was windy and the breaks were relentless. ZMotion covered every break and the entire team worked together like a well oiled machine. Some of the notable breaks included Victor along with Seth and Chris who were away for several laps and got caught with only around 5 laps to go. Then it was Adam and Jody's turn to get away. As the race got down to the wire, Flaco put his head down and dragged Hector up to the front guys and Hector launched a blazing sprint to win the race. Congratulations guys!!

Some of the other notable things included solid placings in the 45+ field by Raife (6th) and Shaun (8th). The 35+ field looked to be the largest of the day and Vinny was our top finisher at 8th with Jeff a couple of spots behind at 10th. We are even working on developing our future riders with some Junior riders. Max came in 3rd in the Junior 13/14 class.

I will post the top 20 for each field when the "official" results are posted, but this blog needed to be written immediately. Plus we need to understand why Randy is getting all of this attention from Gina and Christina.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Lay It Down For Leon

This from Pat regarding the tragic death of Leon Hamer.

A marketers POV: Ok, so how do we get people’s attention, how do we make some noise ( quietly ), how do we get some free news press, how do we protest this behavior , how do we get the attention of our representatives, how do we utilize Leon’s tragedy to bring about some change to a sport he obviously had a passion for. Publicity , legally that makes a statement and has relevance, take a moment and visualize this … In Honor of Leon, we organize not a ride of silence but a protest that makes loud noise , imagine hundreds of cyclist on a Saturday morning that line A1A and lay down their bikes, “ Laying it down for Leon” ….. that’s right, from Ft Lauderdale to WPB, hundreds of cyclist for a few hours will lay down their bikes on the side of the road and we will waive signs at motorist that pass us by , we will have the “ LAWS “, deadly and accidental facts written on them, we will all wear fake blood on our arms, faces and legs to demonstrate what a cyclist hit by a car would look like, let them see the brutality of what being hit by a mirror actually can do to a human being. Bring our wives and children to show that we are family people too !!!!! This dramatization will be filmed and a copy of this act will be sent to Tallahassee demanding more to be done in terms of Infrastructure and education.

In addition, we have a PR firm in Tallassee that I am going to approach about doing the same “ Lay It Down For Leon “ there around the Capital Building. From this, my hope and goal will be to get a face to face with our Governor and/or other representatives so they can feel our pain and passion . I want to demand that we get some monies allocated to TV advertising for education and infrastructure support. I would also push that in order to get a driver’s license, in the test they not only have to know traffic signs and laws , but, interaction with cyclist laws as well.

There you have my idea. Thoughts, comments, other ideas….

Monday, March 9, 2009

Rosewood - 3/9/09

Rosewood racing in Miami Lakes was off with a BANG this weekend. This race series has been running for years and we had some record crowds and some really fast racing. zMotion had people in every category and people knew we were there.

We started the Masters 35+ a little late as the registration line was crazy backed up, but our seven starters were ready to go. The overall pace was very fast with an average speed of 26.5 mph. Julio tried one of his signature early race attacks and that was just one of several attempts that were all reeled in. We rode well as a team with Chris focusing on being constantly near the front. Jody went to the front to keep the pace high and then Pedro launched an attack to keep the hounds at bay while the always wise Jeff positioned himself near the front. In the final sprint it looked like Jeff would win but he was pipped at the line by a fast charging Lee Fox.

The Masters 45+ again had a nice group of Z-guys and as the race developed, a five man breakaway ended up staying away (thanks to some great zMotion blocking) with our man Ron Ray keeping it real. He ended up finishing 5th with our guys also going for positions in the field sprint.

The Pro,1,2,3 was a monstrous field (it looked like around 80 guys) and they kept a nice pace with a 27.1 mph average. There were a lot of break attempts but it basically came down to a field sprint in the end. Our newest Racer, Patrick and Julio were taken down in a crash with a couple of laps to go (both of them can barely walk today). With one lap to go Captain Alex launched a ferocious attack that was unfortunately reeled in but strong-man Hector duked it out for a solid 4th place.

The Cat 4,5 field is sooooo much stronger than in previous years and maintained a 25 mph average and our team kept things real. All in all, we had a great time and some solid racing.

A summary of our Top 20 placings include:

Cat 35+ - Jeff in 2nd, Chris in 8th, Julio in 13th, Amir in 17th
Cat 45+ - Ron Ray in 5th, Shaun in 9th
Pro 1,2,3 - Hector Pastorino in 4th
Cat 4,5 - Randall Jacques in 10th

Friday, March 6, 2009

Paceline Training Ride



Jeff and Chris organized a Paceline Training Ride at Gina's suggestion for this morning for some of our newer riders and it was a 100% success!!! We had 20 people show up with 5 of them from the Race Team. After some "words of wisdom" at the Cove, we headed North on A1A in a double paceline. After doing that for several miles we switched to a rotating single paceline. Initially things were a little rough but with some encouragement and a quick discussion after a stop at Atlantic, we smoothed things out nicely. What was especially promising was the fact that we got back into a paceline after a full stop.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Check out the New Forum

This team is like a bunch of "chatty cathys" and some days I get over 100 emails from everyone. So to fix this and give everyone a place to rap, I have created a Forum.

http://www.zmotionracing.org/phpBB/

Now you are supposed to limit the Smack Talk, but since The Boss is the worst offender then I guess I will just ask you to not let the Smack get out of hand.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Ride Report - Hospice Ride for Life

The Hospice ride offered both a Road ride and a Mountain Bike Ride. Our on-scene Road rider Chris Hoch shares the following:

The charity ride started like all others do. Once everyone lined up for the start other teams starting rolling in like Santos, Herbal Life, and Bike America so we knew it was going to be fast. About 250 riders of all calibers were there, but the main peloton stayed together only in the the beginning. The wind played a huge factor in the ride as it was gusting between 15-25 mph. The peloton got smaller and smaller as the miles tacked on. As the groups started to break up, there was a crash amoung the not so experienced/conditioned riders, where a guy lost control of his bike, taking down Shannon and 5 other riders. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt with the only damage being a few scratches on the bikes.

Once the group started picking up speed, a few riders broke away including Julio and a Bike America rider which lasted for many miles. Bike America partnered with zMotion and controlled the front of the peleton to allow them to pull away. Unfortunately it wasn’t the right time for a break as it got caught. After about 25 miles, Pedro and Chris got into a break with two other riders. Julio did some blocking at the front to allow them to get away and they were gone for nearly 30 miles when Hector and 4 other riders caught the first break. With only about 6 miles left, the 9 riders kept attacking each other until they all were exhausted and 8 of them came in together for the finish, 3 being zMotion Team Racers…

The end of the ride was finished with everyone hanging out enjoying Firehouse Subs and trying to rehydrate from a hot windy ride…



Our on-scene Mountain Bike rider Karl Fele adds:

The mountain bike race was extremely challenging. Markham park is one of the most technical trails on the East coast.

There were over 50 solo riders competing on the 100K track, but only 6 finished the entire distance. I think Joe Vitro was setting the fastest laps for the first third of the race, but he paid the price of being away from mountain bike training later. It was amazing how fast he went though without really training on the MTB. I went out a little slower, but I only lasted till lap 6 (out of 10). I couldn’t continue riding safely, so it was just not worth the risk. Once you are cramping and making mistakes on that course, it can be deadly (literally). Adam Goldfarb and his team came in second in the team division though, so that is an awesome result.

It was great training and I had a lot of fun. I will really appreciate this tough experience during the Vista View road race. Thanks for the support and putting this event together.