Virginia's Blue Ridge GO Cross: Sidney McGill ends Manon Bakker’s USCX win streak as Tofik Beshir takes back-to-back victories on day 2 in Roanoke

In a heated duel with Manon Bakker, Sydney McGill avoided her rival’s crash in the final corners to race to victory in Sunday’s C2 at Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross, ending Bakker’s three-race winning streak in the second round of the US Cyclocross Series (USCX). In the men’s race, Tofik Beshir (CXD Trek Bikes) took another solo to claim back-to-back victories this weekend and his third in the series.

The pace was high in the women’s race after Nico Knoll (PRO.FWD) lead the pack the first lap after taking the holeshot. But splits happened soon after, with Knoll, Bakker and McGill pulling away, but by the third lap, Knoll had faded, leaving Bakker and McGill to battle for the win, staying together until the end of the final lap.

As the leaders hit the final climb, Bakker went all in, punching her way to the top, but slipped out in the final dry, dusty corner before the descent. McGill was briefly held up but quickly pushed through and powered onto the finishing straight to claim her first win of the series.

“She would just like sit up and try and get me to go on the front,” McGill said of her duel with Bakker. “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.”

“I knew the race came down to the entry to the UCI [downhill] line and she obviously knew that as well,” she added. “So that's where she went for it, but she just made a mistake in the corner that let me squeeze by."

“I don’t like losing,” said Bakker, who rolled in 6 seconds behind for second place. “Winning is the only thing.”

Meanwhile, behind, Raylyn Nuss (STF Racing), in her 2026 USCX debut, was picking her way through riders including Kaya Musgrave (Competitive Edge Racing), Lauren Zoerner (Corner Racing p/b Beyond Horizon Media) and Ada Watson (CXD Trek Bikes), and ultimately moved up to finish third, 45 seconds later.

In the men’s race, Ryan Drummond (Competitive Edge Racing) was off the front solo after two laps, with a chase group coalescing behind him with Beshir, Dylan Zakrajsek (Competitive Edge Racing), Tyler Clark (Caledon Hills Armada), Aidan Vollmuth (Donovan Racing) and the Midwest NXT duo of Calvin Conaway and Ethan Brown.

By the fourth lap, the reduced chase group, down to Beshir, Conaway, Brown, and Clark, had bridged the 30-second gap to catch Drummond.

In a repeat of Saturday’s C1 race, Beshir attacked with three laps to go and put in his fastest laps of the day to claim the win, leaving the rest to battle for the remaining podium spots.

“I just let them do their thing,” Beshir said of waiting to make his move. “There was no need to fight.”

“I saw they were tired because they kept breaking late,” he added. “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.”

Crossing the line 22 seconds later, 2025 junior national champion Brown took second, and his first elite podium while Conaway rounded out the podium.

The USCX concludes with two days of racing at the Charm City Cross in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland, October 3-4, 2026.

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