White Pine Fever, ...where the FJRs crushed the competition!! Options

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Note: this is a x-post from the LDRider list, since the winner of the event rode a FJR, as did FOUR of the top 7 riders!



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All -

Exactly a decade ago this month, a group of hard-core Long Distance Riders met in Ely, Nevada to ride in a event called "Miles, Inc.", the brain-child of Jan Cutler and Steve Losofsky. It was a 36-hour event; rider returning with the most miles gets the bragging rights. That's it. "Miles, Inc." was as raw as it was pure. The very first "2K-Day" was achieved during this event, way back in July, 1996.

To acknowledge the 10-year anniversary of that epic run, a somewhat similar event took place in Ely last weekend, July 7-9, 2006. The Cognoscente Group came out of hiatus to host "White Pine Fever", a 24-hour event where riders would attempt to achieve their own "personal best" mileage in a 24-hour period. Towards that end, riders could ride the route of their own making. All routes had to be submitted to one of the two White Pine Fever "GateKeepers", HMarc Lewis and Chuck Hickey, during Check-In/Odo Course.

In order to ensure a certain level of demonstrated rider ability, and by our preference, all Cognoscente Group events are strictly "by-invitation" only. We only send invitations to those we know are capable of Handling the Load. 179 invites were bulk emailed out to the Endurance Riding community last winter.

All 50 available slots were filled within 36 hours.

Some of the very best talent we have in the LD community - former IBR winners/Utah 1088 winners/Cal 24 winners/etc - signed up for this event, so we knew there was a good chance the Cognoscente might possibly add a couple of names to the Secret 2K-Day Society roster. But, we were wrong.

We more than DOUBLED the names on the list!

"White Pine Fever" produced no less than seven (7) new riders earning 2K-Day status. The following names will be forwarded to Michael Kneebone for inclusion into the Secret 2K-Day Society:

:: Greg Marbach - 2004 Yamaha FJR1300
:: Gary Eagan - 2004 Ducati ST4 "Italian Valdez"
:: Matt Watkins - 2005 Yamaha FJR1300A
:: George Zelenz - 2005 Yamaha FJR1300
:: John Parker - 1994 Honda ST1100
:: Mike Hutsal - 2000 BMW K1200LT
:: Ian Laing - 2004 Yamaha FJR1300

Six more riders earned their way into the sparsely populated 1800+Mile Club:

:: Bob Bacon - 2000 BMW K1200LT
:: John Harrison - 2003 Honda GL1800
:: Tom & Rosie Sperry - 2001 BMW K1200LT
:: Tom Austin - 2003 BMW K1200GT
:: Mac Macfarland - 2004 BMW R1150GS

With very few exceptions, almost all riders who completed White Pine Fever were successful in achieving their own "Personal Best" 24-hour ride. Congratulations to all White Pine Fever players who achieved the goals that they were after.

Note: For obvious reasons, we are not going to discuss the actual details of White Pine Fever in a public forum, nor will participants discuss them even in private email. Please don't bother to ask them. However, if you see someone wearing a White Pine Fever rallyshirt at a future gathering, you can certainly ask them questions if you like (though they may or may not answer them).

Congrats again to all White Pine Fever players. And the next time any of you see Greg Marbach, you should immediately go up and shake his hand. Trust me.

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Note: there were four more FJRs competing in White Pine Fever; one was time-barred (Doug Banfelder), the three others rode a successful 1700+ mile run (Lisa Stevens, Tobie Stevens, Art Montoya)

Pictures and write-ups:

Phil Kopp's Official Photos

H. Marc Lewis Write-Up and Pictures

Matt Watkins and Tobie/Lisa Stevens Photos

John Parker's Photos