BASP #4 - Golden Gate Park Cyclocross - Spence Wins It!

Warm weather in November (almost December)? Once again, it was an unseasonably warm and sunny day for Cyclocross, but the boys (and men) persevered through the heat and dust, to put down some pretty remarkable results:

Blair Peterson did another “double header” – racing in Men’s A’s first, then coming back for more fun with the Men’s B Singlespeed race.

Blair's first race - the Men's A's (a very tough crowd)

Blair on his second race of the day - Singlespeed B Men

He did well in both, and may be close to keeping his 6th place hold on the series. Not sure how he finds the energy, as I could barely drag myself to the race in the first place!

While they were getting ready to race, the Juniors did a PROPER warmup, following Craig Upton's guidelines - the boys all reported feeling a lot better at the beginning of the race.

Alex and Jack, on the trainers, warming up for their race

Then the Main Event – Men’s B race.

Spence and Alex charge up the front straight at the start of Men's B race

This one was packed with excitement over the full 45 minutes – starting with a strong hole shot with Isaiah and Spence getting to the corner with the first 2 or 3 other guys, then Bob, Alex, Skyler and Jack threading their way through the course (and other racers).

Over the 6 laps they raced, Spence, Isaiah and a Taleo racer all battled it out for 1st place, trading the lead, and overtaking each other at key points in the race. With lots of technical challenges, including roots, a ride-down + run-up, and plenty of tricky places to pass, the battle waged on for lap after lap.

Spence has overtaken Isaiah and is hammering up the front straight

Finally, in the last lap, Spence blasted by both Isaiah and the Taleo guy, and never looked back – he put down his First Place over a field of 82 racers – and with a strong finish to stamp it all his.

Bob heading up the front straight ready for his next pass

Bob produced his strongest result to date – a 7th place, after having pushed hard past a number of other fast riders. He showed great determination and looked as strong as in any race this year.


Just behind Bob was Scott Harrington, who overcame a couple of incidents in the race to claw his way back into the top 10 at 9th place.

Scott Harrington looked super strong today - solid Top 10 finish

Skyler Taylor started strong, and really held onto his position throughout the race, despite a potentially nasty crash on the ride-down. He kept his cool, and pushed his way into a 20th place finish.

Skyler is heads down, and digging hard to keep them behind him

Alex Howard showed his drive and concentration after he flatted with a HUGE staple through his tire.

The staple that probably cost Alex a Top 10 finish

After getting a new wheel, he powered through the field, chewing up and spitting out riders 3 and 4 at a time. He passed his way from near the back of the field to a finish in 26th place - certainly one of the strongest rides of the day!

Alex reeling in more riders on his move back up through the field

Jack Keane did a great job of cutting through the middle of the field, and continued to show great promise with a 46th place finish – solid mid-pack finish!

Blair hammered the course on his single-speed, trying to keep up with the higher-geared racers, and rode home with a strong finish – he has a solid lock on a Top 10 series finish at this point!

The Payoff - Spence Peterson - First Place - Men's B

The afternoon was dominated by the announcer constantly referring to the battle between Spence and Isaiah, and then the mention of the other AC riders, one after the other – we clearly had the biggest team out there, and everywhere you looked was black and white AC kit.

Team AC - Alex, Blair, Scott, Jack, Bob, Spence and Skyler

Special thanks also to Jack French for his photography – can’t wait to see the next round of pictures. Thanks also go out to Above Category and Chad Nordwall for the great Edge wheels and Focus race bikes - a resounding success according to the boys. And also to Meg, Julia, Nicole and Hillary for the great food to keep everyone up and at it.

My Photos are HERE, but there are MANY others to come from the other photographers.

Next Race: The FINALE – BASP #5 – Sunday, December 6th at Coyote Point – See HERE

And REMEMBER – this one will PAY OUT – there is $750 in prizes, 8 deep, in the Men’s B Series