This year Cameroon Mader had the fastest total time of the weekend at 33:13.9 over a truncated three-stage race. That's more than half an hour of timed riding, when most EDR events are being won around the twenty-five minute mark. The NAEC is not easy. And this year, thanks to several inches of snow during the first day of racing, it was decidedly hard.
In retrospect, Friday's practice conditions were deceitful, maybe even a little spiteful. Racers were met with conditions that were just barely on the dry end of perfect. Tacky dirt, plenty of traction on the roots, not too much dust.
A big draw of the NAEC is that every year it incorporates fresh-cut stages, opened specially for the race. Rallying fresh-cut loamers with your friends is always a blast, and in an era where many enduro races are edging closer and closer to becoming multi-stage downhill events, these race-only trails bring back an element of the blind riding that makes the discipline shine.
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