ROANOKE — Sidney McGill ended Manon Bakker's three-race winning streak with victory in Sunday's C2 at Virginia's Blue Ridge GO Cross, while Tofik Beshir (CXD Trek Bikes) powered to a solo win for back-to-back victories on day 2 in Roanoke in the second round of the US Cyclocross Series (USCX).
The women's race was fast from the start after Nico Knoll (PRO.FWD) took the holeshot and led the opening lap. Knoll, Bakker and McGill soon pulled clear, but Knoll faded by lap three, leaving Bakker and McGill locked together until the final lap. On the last climb Bakker attacked hard and led into the final dry, dusty corner before the descent, then slipped out. McGill squeezed by and drove to the finishing straight for her first win of the series in 51:52, with Bakker rolling in six seconds later. "She would just like sit up and try and get me to go on the front," McGill said. "I was like, 'I've learned my lesson from you. I'm not gonna pull you around and let you attack me.' So, we definitely were playing a bit of a game." She added, "I knew the race came down to the entry to the UCI [downhill] line and she obviously knew that as well. So that's where she went for it, but she just made a mistake in the corner that let me squeeze by." Bakker said, "I don't like losing. Winning is the only thing."
Behind the lead duel, Raylyn Nuss (STF Racing) in her 2026 USCX debut moved through Kaya Musgrave (Competitive Edge Racing), Lauren Zoerner (Corner Racing p/b Beyond Horizon Media) and Ada Watson (CXD Trek Bikes) to take third, 45 seconds behind McGill. In the men's race, Ryan Drummond (Competitive Edge Racing) led solo after two laps before a chase group of Beshir, Dylan Zakrajsek (Competitive Edge Racing), Tyler Clark (Caledon Hills Armada), Aidan Vollmuth (Donovan Racing) and Midwest NXT duo Calvin Conaway and Ethan Brown formed behind. By lap four, Beshir, Conaway, Brown and Clark bridged the 30-second gap to Drummond. As on Saturday's C1, Beshir attacked with three laps to go and put in his fastest laps of the day to win solo in 1:00:26. "I just let them do their thing," Beshir said. "There was no need to fight." He added, "I saw they were tired because they kept breaking late. Before the sand, I slowly moved up and then took that corner really good and just kept taking my momentum all the way through the sand."
Ethan Brown, the 2025 junior national champion, finished 22 seconds behind Beshir for second and his first elite podium, while teammate Calvin Conaway completed the men's podium in third for Midwest NXT. In the women's top 10, Knoll was fourth at 56 seconds, Watson fifth at 1:16 and Musgrave sixth at 2:20.
The USCX continues with two days of racing at Charm City Cross in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland, on October 3-4, 2026.