zMotion rides with Tom Danielson's Holiday Cruise

Sunday was the scene of around 50 riders that braved the cold to hang with Tom Danielson over in Naples at his first annual Holiday Cruise. It was an 80 mile ride and a great chance to both ride and learn from a ProTour Rider. Tom will be riding is first Tour de France this year with his breakout Garmin-Transitions team.

It was a great event and we got to experience TRYING (and failing) to hang with Tom when the pace picked up before the halfway point. The only brave souls that could stick with him were two naples guys and our very own Alex and Victor.



We even got to see Pablo Santa Cruz wearing a zMotion jersey (just don't tell his team).

Kids in Distress Ride 2009

As Title sponsor, zMotion was proud to be part of the 2009 KIDS annual Inlet Challenge and as always it proved to be a fun and challenging ride for all 700 plus riders that participated and we look forward to next years as well. Congrats to Jennifer Homan and the entire staff at KIDS for all their efforts, as well as Gina, Emily and our staff at zMotion for providing all of us with such a great venue . I was particularly glad to see the weather cooperate, especially for me, those long windy rides can make it very difficult for a guy like me. BTW, the food was incredible this year too, a little mix of Tai, Sushi and some good ole pasta and salad, let’s not forget the extra cold beers too !!

Most important, is the satisfaction we derive from participating in such a great event for such a great cause that benefits children of many ages and their families , of all walks of life that are/have been abused and/or abandoned. I encourage all our readers to visit their facility, if you have children, bring them, it puts everything into perspective on what’s important in life. Like all organizations that suffer the economic times, KIDS is no exception and they need all of our helps even more than ever. So regardless if you rode this year or not, if your reading this article and have a heart give a buck or two, it goes a long way.

Happy Holidays to all
Your Captain
Pat Patregnani

Tom Danielson races with zMotion

This is Tom Danielson racing with the zMotion Mountain Bike Team.

Race Report - Florida State Mountain Bike Race #3

From our onsite reporter Joe Vietro

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Ok, round 3 of the FSC series was held in Alafia River State Park near Lakeland and it was by far the hardest, longest (30 miles for xc-1), and most technical race to date with lots of large roots, big drops and steep climbs. Steve LaRue took 1st place in the 40+ xc-1 class with a super strong showing for his 2nd win in three races putting him in 1st place overall! Nice job Steve keep it up!

Jimbo also took 1st place making it three in a row for him putting in 1st over all in his class also. Joe Vietro took 5th place in 30+ xc-1 class (Joe hit the dirt a few times, I think four, but who's counting). Joe is slowly move up the ranks in his class and now is in 2nd place overall. Stay tooned for next week race round 4 In Tallahassee.

ZMotion FPS Celbration

After a hard day of racing it was time for the celebration of the season’s efforts. Sponsored by ZMotion at The Appleton Museum of Art, it was a classy affair. There were security guards a plenty, but that still didn’t stop us for viewing some really neat art including some tricked out Chopper-style motorcycles. Dinner was provided between 7 and 8pm where there was a video playing with scenes from the years races and then awards were passed out from 8pm to around 9:30pm.



With over 400 trophies to pass out, Tim did a great job keeping the pace going. We even had two lovely podium girls to help pass out trophies. The venue itself was beautiful, set in the middle of an Art Museum, with a fountain in the middle. It was cool seeing all of these racers’s that you normally see in spandex all dressed up. The women especially clean up nicely.




Course even the women couldn't compete with Jeff's pimped out hat.

Race Report - State Road Race Age Day

The State Championship Road Race weekend is the last state-wide race of the 2009 season. You find that some racers love Criteriums and some don’t but EVERYBODY loves a road race and we had the numbers to prove it. With over 120 riders in the Master’s 30-44 and over 100 in the Master’s 45+ races the racing was fast and furious.

The weekend is broken up into two days with the first day being Age Day and the second day being Category day. On a typical weekend, you can race either or both but not this weekend. The other interesting thing is that the age brackets are only 5 years apart, so 30-34 is scored separated that 35-39, etc..

The course itself was the same course as last year’s Category race day with a 5 mile loop that offered up a difficult power climb just after the start/finish line. The rest of the course was rollers with a crazy fast downhill finish. We had more record temperatures on Saturday with the highs in the low 90’s. The feed zone on the uphill offered welcome water from helpful teammates and it was needed.

Both Master’s races were 8 laps with the 30-44 starting first. With lap times of less than 15 minutes, the late start of the Master’s 45+, due to the difficulty in finding a driver for the wheel truck, had both groups on the course just a couple of minutes apart and their fates were inter-twined today. As the 30-44 group came down to the field sprint all together, a horrific crash happened that took out major sections of the peleton. It was one of the worse crashes I have seen as close to 10ambulances showed up on scene. But our man Vinny weaved his way through the carnage and snagged the State Championship Win. Congrats.

In an interview with Vinnny he was quoted as saying " The race was very hard and fast. I haven’t been on the bike in awhile but I still ended up pulling if off somehow, because I am a “Bad Ass”. Yup, I just want to prove everyone wrong about me because they are always talking crap about me by calling me “Fat Ass” and “Slow Ass”. I have still got it. But it was very hard and I ended up pulling it off. Was I lucky? Very! It was actually a fun, fun race and I enjoyed it.".

The Masters 45+ group ended up being stopped for around 30 minutes just sitting out on the course. Just prior to this a small group of five, including our own Steve Griffith, were off the front and they got a head start when the road was cleared of accident victims and managed to stay away for the rest of the race with Steve coming in 4th.

Race Report - Florida State Mountain Bike Race #2

Just got this in from Joe Vietro...

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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!

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.

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!!

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.