Pair finds the path to success is spinning
Friendship turned to business partnership with Rev Cycle Studio
Rick Zambrano was training for an Ironman triathlon. Esther Collinetti was mustering up the courage for a career change.
Both found what they were looking for when they met at a spin class Collinetti was teaching at Merritt Athletic Clubs in 2013. The two struck up a friendship and, a year later, a business partnership.
Zambrano completed his triathlon, and Collinetti left her job as a scientist at the Smithsonian Institution to throw herself fully into spin instruction. Together, they opened Rev Cycle Studio in McHenry Row in January 2014, with Zambrano handling the business operations and Collinetti teaching classes. The studio now employs about 15 instructors, and they plan to open a second location in Canton later this year.
Collinetti, 40, of Federal Hill, said she started bicycling as a child in Santiago, Chile, where she was raised, to train for horseback riding. She became a spin instructor as a side job while studying biology at Colorado State University. She continued teaching classes when she moved to Baltimore, and soon realized fitness instruction was her calling. “I loved to be a scientist,” she said. “But when I was … leading classes, that’s when I was the happiest.”
Zambrano, 50, who lives in Locust Point, said he’s never done a workout quite like spin, a workout regimen that uses a stationary bike.
“It’s a total mind-body experience,” he said. “You’re not just working your body, getting cardio, building muscles and all of that. It can be very spiritual.”
The two share a sense of adventure, which Zambrano said Collinetti infuses into her spin classes.
“Her passion, energy, positivity — it’s absolutely contagious,” he said.