2008 Zimmerman MS Bike Ride

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Race Report - Chain of Lakes Criterium



Winter Haven hosted a new race course for 2009 and I for one hope it returns next year. The course has eight (yes 8) turns around downtown and it was pretty technical.

The Master's 45+ was fast as always and numerous breaks were attempted and reeled in. With just under 5 laps to go Mark took a flyer off the front but was caught by the field with one lap to go. In the final sprint Shawn weaved his way to the front for a solid 3rd.

Always an exciting race, the Master's 35+ started with a beatifully executed three man break featuring the amaZing Pedro, but a big early race crash caused the race promoters to neutralize (stop) the race for several minutes and then restarted it giving the 3 only a 5 second head start. The three of them worked well together and stayed away for many laps but the pack smelled blood and finally was able to reel them back in (I am almost 100% sure that if they hadn't restarted then they would have stayed away). ZMotion continued to police the front until Jody tried (another) daring solo breakaway. A few laps later he picked up a racing partner and the two of them got up to a 38 second lead on the main field with Jody getting his 2nd win of the season. Curtis Long did a late breaking move for third and then we killed the field sprint with Vinny in 4th, Pedro in 5th, Jeff in 6th and Chris in 8th. Talk about ZMotion domination!!!

In the P1,2 race, they again had to neutralize the race due to another corner 2 crash. Victor, Yosvany from Champion Porche and a Toshiba guy were off in a break for along time but itn came back with Toshiba doing quite a bit of the chasing?? Near the end a Toshiba guys took a solo flyer and opened a huge gap quickly. He ended up staying away for the win. In the field sprint, Durango took it with Juan and Hector right behind for 3rd and 4th!

Finally our newest junior Reben Del Cristo, again did well and placed 8th.

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