2008 Zimmerman MS Bike Ride

Monday, September 28, 2009

Race Report - Florida State Mountain Bike Race #2


Just got this in from Joe Vietro...



Round two of the Florida State Mountain Bike series was held in Fenandina Ft Clinch State Park . Trail was in great shape and the weather was around 80 degrees with a nice ocean breeze . The race consisted of 4 laps with 6 miles of sweet single track and 1 mile of paved road. ZMotion was well represented with another solid performance from Steve Larue with a 2nd place finish, Jimbo Mcguare with a 1st place finish (that's two in a row), Joe Vietro with a 2nd place finish which ended in a very exciting sprint finish with 4 racers with Allison taking the win and Joe getting 2nd. Adam Goldfarb took 6th place and Oscar Camacho finishing up in 10th in the 40+ expert class. Overall it was a great weekend of racing!



Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Race Report - Sugarloaf Mt. Weekend

I think it is safe to say that besides the absolutely ridiculous Webster-Roubaix race, this Road Race was the hardest race of the year. We had 90+ degree weather and clear skies (where is the rain when you actually need it?). The course itself was a 10 mile loop with a 3 mile rollout to the start/finish line. They kept saying we were going up the “easy” side of sugarloaf, but there was nothing easy about it for me. I heard several people complaining at the beginning of the race about that, but the funny part was that after the race those same people were glad to just sit down and have survived.

The Masters 35+ and 45+ fields were combined to have a nearly 80 man field. The initial 3 miles started slowly but by the time they hit Sugarloaf, people were already starting to get dropped. Rumors were flying around at the start line that Brian Lancaster (Orlando Road Club) had been training in these hills for the last month. Before the first lap was even finished, you could see Brian followed by Blain Reeves (Bike America Racing Team) off the front of the field. In between, was Ron Ray (ZMotion) doing a valiant solo chase in no-mans land. These guys were scheduled for 43 miles (4 laps+) and by the time the second lap came around, the field was already splitting with a select group of riders having caught Brian. By the third lap the field had split into three distinct groups that stayed that way pretty much to the finish. Karl Fele was the best placed rider for ZMotion and made the select group of 11 in the front group. He came in 6th overall in the 35+. Ron Ray was the best placed 45+ ZMotion racer at 11th.

The Criterium course on Sunday continued the theme of pain and presented a 1.5 mile loop shaped roughly like a figure 8 that was either up or down. There was no flat anywhere and with the off camber turns made for a highly technical race. The finish line was at the top of one of those uphill sections.

The fields were noticeably smaller today and the Master’s 45+ had around 25 riders on the starting line. The warm and dry weather trend continued with no shade in sight for those watching these guys in their suffering. Alan Badia (Florida Velo #1) launched the first serious attack just begging for the field to come chasing. By the time the field had re-grouped, there were some noticeably tired legs. As the race neared the end there ended up being a select group of five racers with a gap on the rest. Ken Schofield (Orlando Velo) led a lot of the last lap trying to setup Alan Badia for the win, but the ever dominant Peter Aldridge (Team Performance Fitness) showed again that he is the fastest 45+ racer in Florida by grabbing the win followed by Dallas Rose (Gearlink Racing) with Wills Powell (Bike America Racing Team) in third. Ron Ray was again the best placed 45+ ZMotion racer at 10th.

The Master’s 35+ starting field was even smaller but definitely not slower than the 45+ field with two guys off the front in a breakaway attempt on the very first lap. Soon after the field was back together and we saw Curtis Juteram (Bike America Racing Team) attacking the field. Jeff Fleming (ZMotion) also tried his hand several times but was shadowed by Carlos Soler (Team 19 Cycling) who sits just behind him in the overall FPS series. Carlos, if you are reading this, please work with Jeff, not just chase him down.

Early on Alex Yarnell did some work up front to control the breakaways with Karl Fele taking up that same role for the rest of the race. In a similar pattern to the 45+ field, the final laps saw a select group of six riders off the front of the main field. Chad Spicer (Orlando Velo) launched early and managed to hold off the hard charging field for the win followed by Jeff Fleming in second and Didier Fresne (Florida Velo #1) in third.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Race Report - Mountain Biking in Oleta Park

Just heard from Joe Vietro.. He raced down at Oleta Park in Miami on Sunday in an Open Class race and got the V(ictory). There were around 70 racers on the starting line and the course had them going a couple of times around the open field with various little obstacles thrown in and then an open road section followed by a loop around the entire course. The distance ended up being around 16 miles.

Right from the go, Joe was in the front and when he hit a paved section those road racing legs kicked in. What few people were still around were dropped immediately as he hit 26mph on knobbies. By the time he hit the trail he was all by himself and stayed that way the rest of the race. The course itself was wet but that didn't slow him down. Congrats on your win!!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Race Report - Gainsville Mtn Bike



ZMotion is all pervasive, first it was Charity Rides, then it was a Road racing team, and now they have branched out to include a 6 person mountain bike racing team headed by Joe Vietro. They had their first Florida State race this weekend up North in Gainsville and Joe provided me with his first ever race report with pictures from Joel. BTW, Joe and Joel are best buddies but you can never tell by listening to them since they sound like an old married couple when they get together..



From Joe:

The Forida State Mountain Bike Series got under way this weekend in Gainsiville. There was a 4 mile MTB Time Trial on Saturday with a Cross Country race on Sunday with ZMotion fielding 6 racers (really 5 and then there was Joel, just kidding).



In Saturdays TT race Jimbo McGuire took first place in his class, Stephen Larue took third, and Joe Vietro also took third in his class . On Sunday, with conditions wet and muddy, Jimbo again took first place, Steve also got first in a very competative 40+ expert class, Oscar Camcacho took 7th in 40+,and Joe got 7th in 30+ expert. Oh yah and then there was Joel who finished up around 10th in the beginner class.


Sunday, September 13, 2009

Race Report - St. Augustine


This weekend we headed way north for some criterium racing in St. Augustine while keeping one eye on the weather report. We locate the venue fairly easily courtesy of google maps to find a surprisingly technical course. On the map you see a fat sausage shaped course but in person you see at 1k loop laid out in a parking lot with a couple of twisty turns.

Both of the 45+ and 35+ fields were around 35 racers with some women in each. Zmotion had five in 35+ and four in 45+.

The 45+ field started with cloudy but dry skies but that didn't last too long. There were several attacks each with a Zmotion racer, but nothing was sticking and then the heavens opened and it poured. The field slowed some but soon the deep puddles became a factor as taking a wrong line could put you through 3 to 4 inches of water and slow you down a couple of mph. It came down to a field sprint and the wet roads made it tricky but Peter and Aiton were duking it out for the win which Peter snagged with Raife being the top finisher for Zmotion with seventh.

In the Master's 35+, an attack from the first lap by Jody from Zmotion followed by a rider from ORC established an immediate gap. The ORC rider got shelled, but Pedro Medina launched a flyer from the field to eventually bridge up and join Jody. Zmotion took up constant blocking duty headed by Amir and Chris which to allowed Jody a maximum of 24 seconds on the field. Ryan Saylor attempted a solo bridge and was away for several laps but couldn't get out of no man's land in the middle. Early attacks rarely succeed in these type of races, but the with Jody dragging his breakaway companion through the turns so smoothly along with the blocking saw them staying away. They even picked up a lapped rider for the last few laps. After Jody did more than 80% of the work in the break, Pedro sprinted for the gold with Jody in the bronze. Back in the field, Dennis Sutherland attacked the field in the last lap to stay away for third. Zmotion still packed it in with 7th through 9th by Chris, Jeff and Amir respectively.

So this weekends format is an Omnium with a Criterium, Time Trial and Road Race. Thus the results of all three races are totalled and there is also an overall top 3 for the Omnium with trophies in this case. There are typically two ways to get results, time or points and each has it's advantages / disadvantages. In a points each place gets a certain amount of points regardless of time so it tends to limit the damage due to a breakaway. In a total time scenario, a field sprint in a criterium basically puts all of the focus on the time trial.

St. Augustine used the points format and scheduled the time trial early Sunday which was a variation from the typical Saturday PM TT.


So we awoke early Sunday to more rain and darkness and with a 7:45am rollout there were a lot of people who didn't get a stellar warm-up. The course was a flat out and back and was originally billed as a 6 mile course, but it ended up being only 4.4 miles.

The Master's 45+ started before the 35+ and each racer was started at 30 second intervals. Raife rode an awesome TT and came in second by just one second to a Triathlete that came just for this one race. This then put Raife into contention for the overall with a second after the tied pair Ken Schofield and John Faulk with Pablo Santa Cruz in third.


In the 35+ TT, our man Chris Hoch in only his third ever TT won the race launching him into overall contention. We also had the always amazing Jeff in third just after Ryan Saylor with Jody coming in sixth. So entering the Road Race we had Jody in 2nd, Chris 3rd and Jeff in 6th in overall contention.

The road race combined both Master's 35+ and 45+ into a 58 man field. The course itself was a 13 mile flat loop which we did 3 times. The attacks started early with Zmotion always represented. None of the attacks stayed away for more than a few minutes due to very attentive field. The finish which was on a very long straight away, came down to a field sprint with both categories totally mixed together with Carlos Soler taking the overall in his first win of the year. Hats off to him as a 48 year old racing 35+ with gusto and coming in 2nd in the overall.

Pablo Santa Cruz crossed the line second to win the 45+ category and 2nd in overall. Chris Hoch came in third to take second in 35+ and win the overall Omnium! Jeff came came in fourth in 35+ to take third in the overall. Raife came in 4th in the 45+ to take the Omnium overall. Basically there were so many Zmotion guys on the podiums that i was getting confused which was which award. Yes we ROCK!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Race Report - Tour of Bartow




This in from Claudio on Pro,1,2 race at Bartow...



Saturday night Twilight Crit was a four corner race in the downtown of Bartow. In typical night racing fashion the race started it what seemed like amazing speeds. The field was strung out from the start with our Zmotion Pro1-2 Riders, Hector Pastorino,Chris Deluise,Calixto Bello and Juan Gaspari representing every move. Several moves had the right riders in them but were quickly brought back until Hector was able to get in a move with two other riders that was maintaining a 20 second lead on the peloton. The laps went by in this 60 minute plus 2 lap crit and we were going to see the 3 battle it out in a sprint. On the last lap the leader started playing games in the back stretch and as they came into the final straight away the field was touching their heals. Hector was able to hold on to second place as they came accross the line. Juan finished in 6th, Calixto 9th, and Chris 26th, all in the points due to the fact that this was a Florida Cup event and provided points for the Florida Points series 35 deep.

On Sunday the race would be in the same place except that the course would be an eight corner crit with the same finish line. Riders took off and again attempts to get away were covered by Zmotion Pro1-2 until Juan was able to get a gap with another rider. They started to work together and with Calixto and Chris covering moves in the peloton were able to extend their lead. As the laps went on the Juan and Yip were able to lap the field. with about 5 laps to go Calixto attacked the peloton to create a gap of 10 seconds. With one lap to go it was holding at 8 seconds and the field would have to sprint for 4th place, as they rounded the last turn Calixto was stillholding the gap and came accross the line in 3rd place with Juan taking the Win in the field. Hector finished 17th an Chris 20th after closing some huge gaps and chasing breaks all race long.

Race Report - Labor Day Criterium

Where there is racing, ZMotion shall triumph!! While some members of the team went up to Bartow to race, others decided to head South to Brian Piccolo Park to put some hurting on. Monday's 35+ race was a great example of that.

In a field of around 45 guys we only had four guys with Chris, Jody, Alex Y and Tim on deck, but that was enough. The race started fast and strong and within 15 minutes there was a break of 5 guys off the front powered by our own Chris Hoch with almost a half lap on the field. The field desperately chased until they brought them back, but Chris must have had his wheaties because he immediately counter-attacked with another guy. Seeing that this was THE move, Jody and 3 others bridged up. Alex did a great job of blocking in the main field and they were GONE. In the break of 6, Jody did monster pulls to keep the break away. With less then three laps to go, the ever wily Ransford snuck off the front of the group and managed to stay away. With just 1.5 laps to go, Jody got up front to drag the remaining guys around and when he pulled off with just a half lap to go, Chris launched an attack that no one could respond to for a podium finish of 2nd place!!