Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1542196
January 2026 11 With that, our commercial break is now over. Let's get back to the story! We had the purse. We had the riders: myself, Shel- by, Louise, Hallie, Chantelle Bykerk-Prochnau (an old friend I was delighted to see, coming out of re- rement now that her three kids were old enough to travel with), her young protégée Lexi Galbraith, and Bailey Lerwill. A stacked field, sure to put on a good show. I was really excited for the race. Shelby and I were already congratula ng each other on a job well done. But then, in a stroke of bad luck, Shelby badly sprained her ankle three weeks before. It resem- bled a grapefruit in the Snapchats she sent, and I genuinely wondered if her boot would go on. She was dead-set on compe ng though, a er every- thing we'd done to get here. And in a stroke of worse luck, Hallie and Louise both called that same week. Neither would be able to make it. Losing them dropped us one rider below the minimum cutoff that EnduroCross had said we needed to get TV me. I granted myself five minutes of panic, then took a deep breath and picked up the phone. Now, in addi on to being an inadvertent promoter, I had become an accidental team manager as well! Four riders stepped up at the last minute to save Women's EnduroCross. One of them, my Bri sh friend and fellow EnduroGP/European Enduro racer, Emily Hall, joked that I was assembling the Avengers, just like in the Marvel movies. With the help of Georgia and Jeff Skewis, I found Em a rental Beta 200 courtesy of Richard Edwards, and she made the trek over from the UK. Also, a mas- sive thanks to Emily's husband, Chester… when I originally asked, Emily said she was very interest- ed, except, "I have to ask Chester because we're meant to be on our honeymoon that weekend…" So I told her how beau ful Vancouver Island is, and they rerouted their honeymoon so she could race EnduroCross. They had a great me at the race, and on the island post-race… but I'm proba- bly s ll going to hell. Two other reasons I'm likely going to hell are Meg Kennon and Ka e Emmich. Meg is a buddy of mine from Missouri. Should she be out on an EnduroCross track? Not in a pro class! But was she willing to get out there and embarrass herself anyway, on live TV, nonetheless? Yes, she was! "I can't believe I'm doing this," was her response via text, as her boyfriend and I loaded her bike into my van. Rachel Gu sh Rachel Gu sh