Trail Rider Magazine

EnduroCross 2025 EnduroCross 2025 Assembling the Avengers Assembling the Avengers By Rachel Gutish By Rachel Gutish Photos By Jack Jaxon Photos By Jack Jaxon 8 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com It was midsummer. I had spent the morning in a friend's backyard in New Jersey, building a modified version of a classic EnduroCross obstacle, a matrix, for his two daughters. EnduroCross was my specialty for a long me, one of my greatest loves. As I rode through my handiwork, stopping to explain proper technique to the girls, I smiled under my helmet. Ironic, because that very a ernoon, I got the call: Women's EnduroCross was dead. My long me friend and rival, Shelby Turner, delivered the news. The promoter had removed the Women's Pro class from the program due to insufficient turnout. Given sched- ule conflicts and the rela vely few women willing and able to compete in EnduroCross, he had set an obstacle he knew we couldn't clear. Shelby was a fi ng messenger. We met through En- duroCross, the first year there was a full women's se- ries. For twelve years now, we've been compe tors. We had been there together at the beginning, and now we were here together at the end. Living a sim- ilar lifestyle, we understand each other be er than most. Now, we texted each other back and forth the rest of the night, grieving together over the loss of something both of us had truly loved. Late that night, I coped the best way I knew how. I wrote. I poured my heart into a beau ful eulogy for EnduroCross. I said goodbye. I intended to have Kurt publish it here in Trail Rider. But then came a miracle. Another compe tor, Hal- lie Marks, on the verge of re rement and marriage, said the quiet part out loud in an Instagram post. She spoke openly of the difficul es women's racing faces. She spoke in detail about EnduroCross too, calling the series out for cu ng our class. There was a case to be argued for mismanagement. The promoter's first act upon buying the series from Eric Peronnard was to eliminate the Women's Pro purse. Already struggling from the loss of X Games, this did not help our numbers. He also constantly warned us that if numbers stayed low, we would cease to have a series. Prob- ably, he thought this was being helpful and giving us fair warning. Unfortunately, that only chilled turnout further, especially amongst the younger and newer riders that we desperately needed. Why should they put me and energy into a series that might be gone by next year? Especially when you could make more money at a local hare scramble? Even I didn't have a good answer, because the only reason I con nued to pursue the series was

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