Race: 2026 Bay Area Superprestige (BASP) CX Mare Island
Date: November 1, 2026
AVCX racers: Simon Edwards-Parton, Bryan Hains, Sharon Newman, Brennan Pang, David Remahl, Andrew Yee.
Top results: Brennan B45+ 4/12
Course: Mare Island is an old Navy Naval Shipyard in Vallejo. The course ran around the shipyard and was a mix of a road crit, standard CX tape maze and grass, and obstacle course type attractions. It started with a fast pavement drag around buildings and other features, then into the grassy tape maze, another grass section around giant concrete ordinance storage bunkers (had to look that up), to another pavement rip through and under massive cranes, then to the spectator-friendly finish area with elevated ramps, a big water pit, and elevated wood catwalks to the finish. Urban cross.
Race recaps
A35+
Bryan got the call up to race in the A field and let’s just say the experiment yielded very easy to interpret results. As Hannon also found out this season, these guys do not mess around. I started next to Nate from BikeX who, right at the whistle, blasted off at >1000W with 4 other guys immediately gapping off the rest of us. The tape maze slowed things up enough to barely rejoin for a lap or two and I took turns leading through course sections with a few other guys. These guys all eventually pulled away, then the A45+ guys started coming up, sitting on my wheel for a bit, then rolling past. This was all quite demoralizing but the course was lots of fun and the spectator/brewery scene at the obstacles was really energizing. So the laps went by fast and the race came to an end. Rolling past the finish to chat with the other racers I see Nate at the medical tent. He crashed on the last lap, losing out on a podium spot, and the EMT is scrubbing like hell to get shipyard debris (toxic for sure) out of a big skinless section of his leg. I think to myself - I’d rather take the DFL than be this poor guy.
Open B
David: My sorry array of mechanicals continued. I started far forward and pushed hard on the parade lap, but was passed by Andrew shortly thereafter. Traded places back and forth with the same handful of guys for a few laps and it felt really good. After the concrete step (2.5ft high?) that I never even considered could be ridden before some of the Mtb teens flew up it, my inelegant remount cracked the carbon rail of my saddle with 2 laps to go. Around the 1.5 lap remaining point, I put weight on it and it collapsed, fell off, and took me out on a turn. Nevertheless, I finished the race standing, adding about a minute per lap compared to earlier in the race. Loads of fun and very speedy race with almost 14 miles covered.
Andrew: I had a few streaks end today: good starts and riding every obstacle. The 20" cement step really was taunting me to try it, especially after my son’s teammate soared over it, but for the first time, I let discretion win out over valor. The streak that didn’t end: I’m slowly moving up and feeling better after body and pharmaceutical issues (the legal kind, I promise) that dogged me early in the season. After a poor start, I leapfrogged a few people, gave David a shout to relay with me, and by the end of the first lap caught the tail end of the group fighting for third, which included my son. I was happy to be holding on, but through the water pit and skinnies at the end of the first lap, the group exploded, and I found myself getting dropped with Nathan from Rock Lobster and a young kid. We dropped the kid in the grassy maze, and then Nathan said to me, “Let’s catch your son.” I didn’t think it was possible, but we seemed to be gaining on him briefly, until he caught up with two Super Sprinkles riders and took off. That group of three would for 5th (which Kai took despite the two teammates taking turns attacking him). Nathan and I relayed really well in an effort to cement top ten finishes, and for the last two laps I was trying to figure out a way to beat him. We were quite even. I never came up with a plan, but with the final obstacles in sight, I kicked around him, hit the ramp and (FRESH) water pool first, and barely survived the skinnies to take 8th, one spot better than my finish last Sunday. Super fun racing, even though the course didn’t suit my strengths at all. Love the diversity of our BASP courses!
B45+
Brennan: I had a lot of fun on this race. Felt speedy with no hills and it was fun to huck off the ramps, double bunny hop the water feature, and ride the plank skinnies. The B35+ and B45+ fields started together and I found myself in 2nd for the first lap inadvertently blocking people out behind me. I fell back a few positions and after some back and forth, settled into 4th. I spent the rest of the time racing people not in my category and trying to catch up to the leaders. Felt solid overall and didn’t make any significant errors.
B Women
Sharon: I got the holeshot! (kinda) Sprinting off the front was, as usual, pretty fun, but I'm a wimp about taking corners fast on pavement, so I lost the holeshot gap pretty quickly in the first short lap. We were still pretty tightly packed, though, and by the first full lap I was right on the wheel of first place through the woodsy section. I strongly considered passing since I was more technical, but figured it would be smarter to sit behind her, save some energy, and hopefully get a draft on the long straightaways coming up. Welp, turns out I'm not strong enough to hold a wheel on the straights, and this person was hella strong on the road. Hah!
I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but at some point I inherited first when they had a mechanical, only to give up two spots later in the lap after taking a spill on a loose, tight corner. Recovered quickly, though, and things were still pretty close. Up until then, I was feeling good and having a blast trying to catch and draft people. This was probably the first race I've had in a while where things were pretty close between all of us in the same category. Actually felt like a race! Then, somewhere in the middle of the race, I suddenly started to feel objectively bad. It was a familiar feeling that told me I was heading toward a migraine if I kept pushing (remnants of concussion recovery). I tried to push through for a little bit, but kept feeling worse and decided it wasn't worth the risk. Unfortunately, that meant backing off and essentially coasting through the rest of the race. A bit sad, especially when things had been so fun and competitive up to that point, but pretty clear it was the right call when even just finishing the remaining laps was a struggle.
Alas, still alive to race another day. (Also loved the big ramps and scary “skinnies”!)
Relay race
Team “Three Men and a Baby” (David, Andrew, and Andrew’s 16-year-old son Kai, who was racing for Rock Lobster) formed up prior to the race, and Jeff Parker (Roaring Mouse) joined for a fourth. The promoter surprised everyone by having each racer do two short parade laps instead of the full course. Most of us were disappointed by the news, but it made for a good show for the fans. Kai grabbed the holeshot on the first leg, Andrew got passed by a Huck racer during the second leg, and David our held position during his two laps. Jeff, confused by the SRAM AXS dropper post, kept dropping the post instead of shifting and got passed by Kai on the final lap, who was anchoring a second team. We still finished third, which put Andrew back on the relay podium after appearing on the winning team the first two years of the Mare Island Pedalfest.
Our second relay team (4 riders, 1 Crux, 1 duck) consisted of Sharon, then Simon, me, then Lee riding anchor. We kind of got left in the dust of the first 3 teams. Not taking it too seriously, we all had fun sprinting and hucking off the ramps and getting our shoes soaked as we flitted across the water. Thank goodness for Cyclocross Magazine sponsoring the fresh (not brackish) water! We also won’t mention someone’s egregious team member poaching behavior.
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