Charm City Cross Day 2: Manon Bakker and Tofik Beshir sweep weekend with C2 victories on muddy Baltimore course

Manon Bakker (Alpe d'Huzes) and Tofik Beshir (CXD Trek Bikes) conquered the mud and won the C2 elite races at Charm City Cross, sweeping both days of UCI races in Baltimore, Maryland. The pair also secured overall titles in the six-race US Cyclocross Series (USCX).

Even with overnight rain and continued drizzle on Sunday on the twisting Druid Hill Park course, Bakker did not make a switch to mud tyres to start the race and used the speed to gain an early advantage. Sidney McGill (Materiaal-Lastig) matched her pace on the first pass of Mansion HIll, but then put a foot down and disconnected from the Dutch rider for the rest of the race. Bakker would solo the rest of the way, despite slipping several times and having to make pit stops, and score her fifth victory in the series.

"These 3 weeks have shown me why I love 'cross so much. The competition during the games and the fun outside. Feels good to be back on track," Bakker posted on Instagram a day later.

McGill, who won the C2 race at Virginia's Blue Ridge Go Cross a week ago, rolled across the muddy finish line in second place, 34 seconds back. Mia Aseltine (Competitive Edge Racing) took third, another 14 seconds later. With fifth place, Aseltine's teammate Kaya Musgrave locked in third overall in the USCX.

Bakker finished second in the series each of the last two seasons, but was nothing but dominant this year, saying "Finally, I got it".

She announced on social media last month that she did not have a team for her cyclo-cross season, so would compete in a blue kit to promote a cancer foundation. "Alpe d'huzes is a charity that is very close to me, the mountain I've been climbing since I was young. The slogan 'Giving up is not an option' fits me perfectly now," she wrote on Instagram.

In the men's race it was a showdown between Beshir and Pan American champion Andrew Strohmeyer. Now with Competitive Edge Racing, Strohmeyer took the hole shot and then rode in tandem with his Comp Edge teammate Ryan Drummond. However, on the second lap, Strohmeyer was on his own against the CXD Trek Bikes duo of Beshir and Miles Mattern.

Beshir and Strohmeyer then locked horns for the back half of the race, each trying to find any grip on the slippery course. They tangled with three laps to go in the pits, Strohmeyer hitting the deck, and then again on an off-camber section on the final lap, Beshir taking an outside line that interrupted the momentum of Strohmeyer, who again went down.

“I was trying to hold back a little bit and save energy for the later part of the race,” Strohmeyer said. “The separation came naturally. No one really accelerated. People just make mistakes and the people who stay consistent start riding away.”

The 19-year-old Ethiopian stayed away to the finish, his fifth victory in the series. Tyler Clark (Caledon Hills Cycling Armada) would slot into second place by 18 seconds, while Competitive Edge put Dylan Zakrajsek into the final podium spot, followed by Drummond in fourth and Strohmeyer in fifth. Clark would finish second overall in the USCX, while Calvin Conaway, eighth on Sunday, finished third overall.

"It was definitely hard, but I was just trying to have fun and trying to follow Strohmeyer and learn from him,” Beshir said to organisers. “I saw my opportunity and I chopped him a little bit. I really felt bad because I respect this guy.

"You improve every year that you come here, but you don't really know how much [you’ve improved] until you go out and you do it."

He noted that the wet conditions made the pit stops dangerous. “I immediately regretted it once I came out of the pit and saw he crashed. Yes, it is racing, but I have so much respect for this guy.”

USCX included three consecutive weekends of C1 and C2 races in 2026, with openers at Rochester Cyclocross in New York and the second round at Virginia's Blue Ridge GO Cross in Virginia, both in September. Charm City Cross concluded the series.

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