A severe skiing accident when he was 11-years-old left Lars Zebroski with only ½ of a functioning kidney, so he left skiing and turned to cycling. In 1957 he became one of the first Americans to live and train in Europe, joining the Pedali Alpini bike team. He attended U Cal Berkeley for one year, but health issues forced him to drop out. After the 1960 Olympics Zebroski raced professionally in Europe for two years, based in Firenze, Italy. In the early-1960s he opened a bike shop and built his own paragon bike frames, but in 1965 Zebroski moved to Northern California where he designed and built a portable saw mill and formed his own Humboldt County logging business. Zebroski died at age 57 from complications after a kidney transplant.