You are giving me a ticket!

Accidents and crashes are inevitable if you are a weekend warrior or competitive racer. As we spend a significant amount of time riding on the busy roads of South Florida, the odds are that one day you will have an incident with a motor vehicle. The question is not if but when. And when that day arrives you can only hope that you walk away unscathed, minimal damage to your bike and you haven’t broken a collarbone.

Today was my day! As our group of 50 + Zmotion Riders hammered north on A1A to the Palm Beach Inlet, the ride started out fast and hard! The first 50+ miles where at a steady pace of 27 - 29 mph. (So much for taking it easy in the off season!). The weather was perfect; no wind, sunny and about 70 degrees. After a quick stop at the Shell station we headed back south to finish off a 100 miler. About 5 miles into the return ride, we came upon the round about. As I was into the turn, anticipating the Volkswagen Passat Wagon to continue on her way, she seeming thought it necessary to come to a sudden stop. Seeing 50+ cyclists coming thru the round about must have made the driver frightened and instead of driving thru she decided to stop short right in the middle of the road. Unfortunately I wasn’t going to be able to stop as quickly and rammed into the side of her vehicle with my right shoulder going thru the back side window!

I was extremely lucky as I only have some deep cuts on my right thigh, bike seems to be ok and I did not break any bones. Then the Police arrive, make sure everyone is ok and proceed to write me up for a ticket. – Failure to Yield! Are you kidding me! However I cannot complain as I am ok and will be able to ride the HH 100 next weekend!

Zmotion takes bunch sprint!

What a great night of racing for the entire Zmotion Team! In only their 2nd race Pat and Mike continued to gain confidence improving their overall performance. After the race they were quoted as saying “Next week we will attack right from the start!”

Adding to the night’s excitement was the return of Flaco. With several laps remaining, Flaco showed great form pulling Vinny back into the lead group. Working as a team; Flaco, Jeff and Julio setup a perfect lead out for Vinny who outkick the field and won the bunch sprint. Sprinting at over 45 MPH Vinny was heard yelling “Bring on Cavendish” as he raced victoriously across the line!

Thanks for all of the support and appreciate everyone’s efforts and team work!

Zmotion Racing - Making our way to the Top!

We are on our way; building a solid foundation for the upcoming 2009 season. Zmotion was well represented at the Toyota of Stuart Criterium achieving exceptional results in the Pro 1/2, Masters 35+ and Cat 5 categories. Even without the support of a full team, Flaco achieved a top 10 finish in the Pro 1/2 race. That is awesome!Especially when you consider the race was won by Jose Garcia of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team. Flaco finished in 9th place behind a team that raced in the Tour of Georgia! Come on that is outstanding! What excites me the most is the success we will have with 7 or 8 riders representing Zmotion Racing in a Pro 1/2 race. Riders which have had the opportunity to train together strategize race tactics and work together as a cohesive group! The team also had an impress showing in the Masters 35+ with Vinnie coming in at 4th due to the strong efforts of Jeff, Mark H, Wayne, Joel, Joe, Raife, Pedro and Shaun. Finally a big congratulations to the Cat 5 riders; Mo who finished on the Podium in 3rd and Ramon who broke his cherry finishing in 6th place. Ramon thanked Mark Lim for holding back the field and Flaco who stayed to cheer.

State Criterium Lakeland

Thanks to all of the Zmotion Riders who participated in the State Criterium Championship weekend racing in Lakeland. We had great results including two podium finishes in the Masters 30+ and Masters 45+. These results will be the building blocks for the 2009 Season and our goals of winning the overall Florida Point Series.

Bicycle Safety

This is what remains of Craig “Cannonball’s” bike after being struck by a car on a Thursday morning while riding on State Road 84 east of Markham Park. The driver of the vehicle never even stopped! For several days Craig had been in ICU at Broward General and is now in a regular room. He suffered a punctured lung, cracked vertebra, severe road rash (will require skin grafts) and numerous cuts & abrasions. He is in a lot of pain but is physically strong and determined to heal quickly.
Despite the new Florida law requiring motor vehicles to leave a three foot buffer/gap when overtaking cyclists; Craig’s unfortunate incident highlights the inherent dangers cyclist’s face when they take to the roads. We have all experienced cars, trucks and vans whizzing by way too close. Hopefully law enforcement will do more to enforce the law, but until then please remember to use commonsense and review the following bicycle safety suggestions.

http://bicyclesafe.com/

Organized Chaos

With 200m to the finish line, inside the peloton the teams have set up their sprinter; riding shoulder to shoulder, pushing and shoving to get him to the front. Now he must fight for the best position, follow the fastest wheel and then explode to the line, accelerating to speeds over 40 mph, and propel body & bike to the finish line for the win.
“Organized chaos” That’s how I envision the Zmotion Racing team! Bring together the strongest riders in Florida, to form a Pro 1-2 & Masters 35+ team. Individually everyone will have their role but together, working as one, we will win the Florida Points Series Championship!

Captain Pat,

Congratulations on the success of the 2008 Zimmerman MS Bike Ride. The culmination of hard work, commitment, passion and drive to raise the bar to new levels was evident as everyone had an outstanding and rewarding weekend. We are all very proud to be part of the Zmotion Team and all of the people you led; collectively we successfully raised over $2.2 million dollars for the Zimmerman MS Bike Ride and are helping the MS Society in their fight to cure MS.
Your exceptional leadership challenged us to be our very best and to never accept mediocrity and this is much appreciated. You continued to lead by example; raising over $90k for the MS Society and never quit continuously pushing your body as hard as possible. This is because of one simple fact: your heart is stronger than your legs; you should be very proud finishing in the top 10 among the top cyclist in South Florida.
I truly and sincerely appreciate your generosity, spirit, friendship and thank you for bringing together an outstanding group of individuals who are passionate about cycling, committed to community involvement, and ultimately, bring family and friends together in celebration of our combined success.

camp patregnani

Hi Team check out our new blog site, all my further communications will come from here as well as links to our new Z-Motion Team facebook. All weekend rides and events will be posted here, wow are we getting pro here or what.