2008 Zimmerman MS Bike Ride

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Race Report - Ocala Stage Race



This weekend was an interesting format with two road races and a time trial. Not only were there individual races places available, the time from all three races were added up and the top three from each category got trophys.

Zmotion was out in force and made their presence felt as always. The Masters race combined the 35 and 45 fields which made for some challenging racing. What also added to the efforts were temperatures nearing 100 degrees.

In the combined Masters race on Saturday there were lots of attacks on the rolling terrain, but it was a decisive move by Captain Jeff that finally stuck. Jeff was joined by Julio and Karl and three others. Chris did his typical great job of blocking to help establish the break and they were gone finishing almost 4 minutes up on the field! We could have used Raife's presence in the 45+ but he missed the start but Shaun still managed to come in 6th.



In the time trial, Chris looked impressive on a full TT bike and rode into an impressive second place. Jeff strapped some bars onto his road bike and amazed everyone with third overall. One of the most memorable parts was that Vinny got beaten by everyone including some of the girls.



Sunday's road race in the Master's became a much more strategic race since we had three riders all with GC (general category) potential. The race itself consisted of attack after attack that never stuck. Anytime one of the GC favorites made a move it was covered like bees on honey. There was also some fresh legs that didn't race yesterday to keep it interesting. As it came down to the last mile, Julio tried a last minute attack. After Julio was swallowed up the the final turn was sketchy but Vinny launched his attack to win the 35+ with Shaun coming in 3rd in 45+. Jeff hung on for 8th in 35+ to place 3rd overall in the stage race and snag a trophy. Mark would have helped in the finish but with one lap to go he managed an impressive crash on an easy turn.



On the women's front, both Shannon and Lisa rocked the stage. In the road race Lisa took a podium spot with 3rd with Shannon coming 6th after getting boxed in. In only her second ever time trial, Shannon really shone as she took a strong second place to move into GC potential.



The stage came down to Sunday's road race where Shannon came in 4th with Lisa right on her heels for 5th. Shannon's overall time put her in second but her main rival took sprint and KOM bonus seconds to give her the third place trophy.



In the Pro 1,2 field Zmotion continues to shine. Saturday's brutal 60 mile race saw a successful breakaway with not one but two Zmotion riders in the form of Calixto and Mariano. Calixto cramped as the finish line approached with the result of Mariano and Calixto coming in 4th and 5th respectively. In the time trial Calixto strapped on Jeff's bars and powered to 6th (somebody get that guy a TT bike) to launch him into GC potential. Sunday's road race ended in a field sprint with rocket man Hector coming in 3rd. Calixto finished in the field to get a 3rd place GC trophy. Also deserving of congrats is Victor with an 8th place in GC. We are also hoping that Winston is ok as he was taken to the hospital with a possible broken collar bone.

No comments: