Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/131019
Bobby Lapinski rolls through the endurocross section on his way to A Hi Point. ECEA Round 2: Curly Fern Enduro Story by: Zack Huberty Photos by: Joann Hauser T he ECEA enduro season is under way, warm weather is approaching, and everyone has that fever to ride. At the first round, Rich Lafferty took the overall win just ahead of Wally Palmer. Coming into Round 2 at Curly Fern, other riders were hungry to get a taste of victory. The second round of the ECEA enduro series was located in Shamong, New Jersey. This race is known for being faster than most with lots of fire cuts and open trails. By Sunday morning, the warm weather fore- 26 Trail Rider cast was soon dismissed as it was 30 degrees at the start. I rolled up to the line with 3 layers of shirts and a big jacket on. It was freezing and I'm sure others felt the same way. On the long road sections, I struggled to keep my fingers warm and found myself balancing in order to warm my hands on my FMF silencer. We would face 90 miles of trail that were classified as "improved roads, unimproved roads, and plowed lines." The first loop of the day was fairly uneventful but kept everyone on their toes. Every check was an e-check (this is a rare occurrence) which made it difficult as we pretended we were trials' riders in order to scrub off additional seconds. I was the only one time-keeping on my row which made for a stressful morning as I had to anticipate tricky check crews. The most creative check occurred right after leaning down to go under a downed tree (very tricky SJER!). Most of the trail was fairly fast and went down the fire cuts. Coming back from the first loop to the gas, we got to run our bikes wide-open in a 3 mile piece. This section was opposite of everything else we rode on the day. It was extremely rooty, had some muddy ruts, and a small endurocross section. This was my favorite piece of the day as it had some technical aspects. The endurocross section was also a blast as we conquered tires, split firewood, and logs. After a long gas stop, we headed back out for the second half of the day. The first 20 miles of it was mostly time-keeping like the first loop but slowly the speed needed to zero each check increased. We had a couple fire cuts where I got to hang it out and was able to zero them. At those high speeds, it is amazing that your body is able to react to www.Trailrider.com