24-9

[dru_b]

just checked live stats...

ray nees, 13th overall in the mens solo for fun with 2 completed laps.

hfdb, 2nd in class with 3 laps completed

bent 4 beer, bringin up the rear with one full lap completed by bexter, scot is on the trail.


good luck guys.

[JamisXC]

They must have screwed up his lap times yesterday, cuz they revised his second lap. He went from over two hours on lap two, to 1:12:54.

Guess what? He's in FIRST PLACE by a substantial margin!!!!! With 12 laps completed!!!

Keep hammerin' Ray!!!!

[shirvbc]

Way to go Ray Ray!!!

I also see that they fixed the time for Becky / Scott. They counted their first 2 laps as 1 lap - I knew there was no way the Bexter was turning a 3 hr lap up there without a major mechanical. Gotta love the timing system they use (it did the same thing to us last year).

[Howie]

Ray just went out for his last lap 14 if he gets it done before 10:00am for 1 st place Sweet ! that should give him his goal over 200 miles to 205 !

[dru_b]

ray you are a manimal. only minutes away from completeing the 14th according to past lap times. way to go. nice REPRESENTIN.

bent 4 beer, great job. 7 laps for the 12 hour.

hfdb in lap # 16 for the 5 man team. turnin those miles.

great job representin the FORC club. keep it up.

[bnelson]

way to go Ray

[AG]

Nice! Ray! Congrats to all who rode. Looking forward to the stories:banana:

[The Fixxer]

It's true...Ray Nees is the fastest in the "Just for fun" Class. To clarify, anyone doing 14 laps at 9-mile forest finds out that the "Just for fun" really isn't a lot of fun after 24 hours of being on a bike 1st Place with 14 laps and a major mechanical as in a broken frame. Way to go Ray Ray you da man!!!

Congrats to Team HFDB for 2nd in the five person event - Steve O, Milky, Gunchie, Krud & Ann. What an incredible effort you all put forth in that event

Way to go Team Bent for Beer, Bexter & Scotty did great in the coed 12hr event

To all the FORC'ers that raced in the 24-9 and stuck it out, you get some killer props, it was a grueling course of 14 1/2 miles per lap, some with heavy rains. All you peeps definately represented the QC in an awsome way!!!

It's was so cool to be a part of the experience, and oh yeah to be on a winning team!!!

[Chief Illiniwek]

Shut up Jim and go to bed! Oh that's right you selpt all the way home! What a RACE and I agree with Jim, way to ROCK all you FORC'ers that made the trip and raced so hard!

JB

[SpinStir]

Definitely awesome job, FORCers! But another broken GIANT frame? Hope they're taking some notes!

[jimithng23]

Thanks for all the congratulations and I have to give Ray his due as well. That is an amazing feat my friend.

But.....that's not the reason for this post.....

Let's give the Support Crew a big hand - Sass, Hollywood (Johnny), Jim, Poofy and JB. You guys did an awesome job of whatever was needed and most of you suffered the same lack of sleep that the racers did. Thank you so much for helping out and being there for us!!!

....all stories and anecdotes to be told at the meeting next week!

[Bexter]

Here's what Bonnie wanted me to pass along...

Would you post a congratulations to Ray and Krud and team and you and
Scott for me on the FORC website? And also a thank you to everyone
for their support and camaraderie?

Thanks!
Bonnie

[Bexter]

I was a fun experience but bittersweet for me since John and I were supposed to go to 24-9. Still went, participated, had fun and have another 1000 reason of why I appreciate my friends so much! You all ROCK!

Bonnie texted me last night and said that while Scotty and I ended up at 38th, we were the first co-ed team. The teams before us were male-only teams. And, I could have done a 4th lap, but I weighed the propsect of cold beer against moving up a few more places. We would have been in the 30s somewhere. The beer won out. Go figure!! Ha! Scotty, thanks for being an awesome partner!

FORCers (and honorary FORCers / PAMBAites), you rock! Nice work on your efforts whether you raced or were part of the awesome support team.

[SweetSVT99]

Like Mielke, I have to give a huge thanks for the support crews that made sure our racers had everything when we needed it, without a single complaint...even when we were being whiny b@t#$es. :D

Here's to GrannyGear changing their rules to honor Solo "JUST FOR FUN" racers:

[Gunchie]

When the motto is race, eat, race, eat you absolutely NEED a great support team. Our 2nd place finish shows that is exactly what we have. Thanks everyone!

After doing 4 laps of this 14.5 mile coarse filled with tight, technical, rocky, root filled terrain only one thing come in my mind... how in the hell did Ray Nees do 14 laps of this!? His accomplishment in this race took EXTREME dedication and training. It was absolutely amazing seeing him meet this goal. There is no way that I could have physically done what Ray has done. You inspire us all Ray, and Granny Gear Productions can go to hell for not giving you your proper respect. Oh, and what about those nice slow laps you talked about time and time again before doing the race!? 1:15 is a blazing fast lap when you are doing 14 laps!!!

[Vibrato]

1st thing I wanna say is- NEVER AGAIN!! The only places I don't hurt are the ones that are still numb!

Full details will be talked about ad nauseum and you'll hear'em till your sick of'em, But thanks to KRuD for the spare bike (I only have one!) AG for spare lights, JB for coming up for the fun of it and for loaning me his left hand grip, Poofy for staying up for 30 hours to help me out with sustenance, and the Fixxer for being right where I needed him to be numerous times, but especially when it was time to change forks from my broken bike to the spare bike- even with that mechanical we still came in under 2 hours for that lap!!

Without all of the advice from Howie, Schaar, Forcmeister and others, I wouldn't have made it. I finished the 14th lap in plenty of time to go ride another, and I couldn't- I had nothin left. The last lap I walked every rock garden and I even had to walk two of the hills. Granny low and I couldn't make the friggin pedals go round anymore!! My joints are all swollen, my knees, elbows, wrists, shoulders, and hips ache, my left achilles squeeks when I move my foot, my lower back and neck burns when I try to stand up and you DON'T EVEN WANNA KNOW about, ahem, "down there".


As for the frame- my fellow nobbies, I've broken motorcycle frames, let alone aluminum 4lb bicycle frames. Many of us have broken bicycle frames and if there isn't a huge thread on MTBR about them breaking, it's probably breaking because I'm NOT a smooth rider. The aluminum ripped around the weld where the seat tube goes into the bottom bracket. Keep in mind that even with all the weight I've lost, I still weigh in at over 200lbs when I'm geared up.

While I wanted to do a 24 hour mostly just for the experience, I gotta say, It's not really my bag, and I don't expect to do another one. Riding slow for hours on end is too much like riding a road bike, nothing happens for hours at a time and I get bored. I'm more of a ride fast, hit trees, crash and break things kind of rider.This might explain why I'm always breaking stuff!!

It was a heck of an experience, but I'm glad it's over. I miss beer and group rides with my nobby headed friends!

Congratulations to all of the FORC teams I missed all of the comeraderie that being on a team has had in years past, it got pretty lonely being on the trail that long! Seeing you guys on the lap change overs and you all telling me how great I was doing helped me reach the 200 mile mark more than you know. Thank you all for being there!!

[SweetSVT99]

Seeing you guys on the lap change overs and you all telling me how great I was doing helped me reach the 200 mile mark more than you know. Thank you all for being there!!

That was, hands down, the highlight of my weekend fo sho. I'm glad I got to be there when you finished your last lap...in first place.

[jimithng23]

I'm with Steve 100%. There were times where I thought to myself "****, I'm too damn tired to do this anymore. I'm done." Then, I remembered that somewhere out on the course was Ray's crazy-ass riding his umpteenth lap *and* in first place! I had to go back out. Incredible.

Also, fantastic placement of the Taj Mahal. Coming around after seeing the 13th mile marker, knowing fellow FORCers were setup on that stretch gave me an adrenaline boost each time.

....there's so much to talk about I don't know where to start, so I'll stop...oh ya, check out the photo link I posted on the Open Forum too!

[marticus]

Ray -

Just wanted to pass along a very well-deserved "congrats!" We didn't get a chance to meet after the race, but I did talk to your friend with the camcorder afterward. I took a chance that I might be able to contact you through QCFORC.ORG (since it was part of your team name.) I'm the guy who was chasing you all day last Saturday from some distance behind. I ultimately finsihed second, but I'm not sure you would have even known I was there. You were really MOVING! Congratulations on a fantastic job!

[Vibrato]

Hey Marticus! Thanks for posting up and GREAT JOB on finishing!! A Lot of the wanna be soloist's dropped out when the going got tough, (and dark, and cold, and lonely!) but you stuck with it till the end , my friend, and I gotta give major cudos to anyone who did what we did!!

I can't believe the experts who did 19 laps (thats 280 miles!) and weren't even walking funny when they were done! Hell I finished our 14 laps and slept for 18 hours and ate non-stop for the next 3 days!!!

That is definately something to be proud of, Brother, and 205.8 miles off road is an easy 400 miles on pavement- you deserve to be very proud my man!!!

[PAGS]

Hey Ray,

Nice job on the win, what a huge accomplishment!

See you on the trails.

Mike