BASP is heading back to the shipyard.
On Sunday, November 1, the Bay Area Super Prestige series brings back one of its favorite venues: Mare Island UCX in Vallejo. If you missed last year’s return, you’re in for something pretty special.
Racers fly over the pallet flyovers on the Mare Island waterfront. Urban cyclocross returns to the historic shipyard on November 1 with the 2026 Mare Island UCX.
Racing Through 170 Years of Naval History
Mare Island was once home to the first U.S. naval shipyard on the West Coast, opening in 1854 and playing a major role in American shipbuilding through WWII and the Cold War.
Today, instead of building battleships, the shipyard hosts something much more important: racing bicycles through it.
Cyclocross first came to the island in 2019 with the inaugural Mare Island PedalFest, and the urban racing kept coming back, from the PedalFest’s return to the third annual edition and a fourth year of racing.
A costumed racer splashes through the water feature at the 2022 Mare Island PedalFest. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
A young rider takes on the kids’ course at the 2022 Mare Island PedalFest. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
A lone racer passes beneath one of the shipyard’s massive gantry cranes, still standing over the course more than 170 years after the yard opened in 1854.
Cranes, Bunkers and Bomb Shelters: The Mare Island UCX Course
Forget your typical cyclocross course. The Mare Island UCX course winds through the historic shipyard, along the Napa River waterfront, and around the old industrial landscape that makes this course unlike anything else on the BASP schedule.
Racers charge around cranes, bunkers and shipyard buildings, on waterfront roads and grass, and over whatever other questionable obstacles the promoters can convince you are “cyclocross appropriate.”
Racing beneath the Mare Island shipyard’s towering cranes is part of the Mare Island UCX experience, back November 1.
The Wet Mile UCX ramp sends racers airborne along the Napa River waterfront at Mare Island.
Yes, you read that correctly: the course sends racers through actual WWII-era bomb shelters, concrete air raid shelters built immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
Every corner of this course has a story. One minute you’re racing along the waterfront, the next you’re ducking through a concrete bunker, and before you know it you’re charging beneath towering shipyard cranes.
Costumes are fair game at Mare Island, where racers run through a WWII-era bunker on the historic shipyard course.
Steel, concrete and shipyard structures give the Mare Island course backdrops no other cyclocross race can match.
The promoters bill Mare Island UCX as the best urban cyclocross race in the world. At least until someone proves them wrong.
Mare Island Brewing Co. and the Best Seat in Cyclocross
The whole thing takes place right outside Mare Island Brewing Co., which means spectators can post up with a drink, watch the racing, heckle their friends, and enjoy the waterfront while everyone else makes questionable decisions on bicycles.
Racers splash through the water feature in front of Mare Island Brewing Co., where spectators catch the racing with a drink in hand.
Hand-ups and heckles await in the crowd gauntlet for the relay at Mare Island UCX, returning November 1. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
With the brewery sitting right along the course, it’s just as much fun to watch the racing as it is to be out there suffering through it.
The Lonesome Louis Relay: Four Racers, Four Laps, One Bike
Four racers. Four laps. One bike. What could possibly go wrong?
The legendary Lonesome Louis Relay returns to Mare Island UCX on November 1, bringing back one of the most ridiculous traditions in BASP history.
Here’s how it works: get a team of four people together, pick one bike, and each teammate races one lap before handing that same bike off to the next rider. That’s it. Four people, four laps, one bicycle.
Now imagine four grown adults trying to agree on a saddle height. Your 6’4″ teammate might have a slight advantage over your 5’2″ teammate. Or maybe not. The promoters are not here to solve your team’s poor planning. They’re just here to watch it happen.
Mare Island had it before the UCI Cyclocross Worlds added it. Team Relay, 2023 UCI Cyclocross World Championships, Hoogerheide. © B. Hazen / Cyclocross Magazine
The relay kicks off after the final race of the day, so stick around, grab your friends, and get ready for what might be the most entertaining race of the entire weekend.
The top three teams will make the podium, and the winning team will have their names etched into the legendary Lonesome Louis trophy, proudly displayed at Mare Island Brewing Co. – a permanent reminder that four people somehow managed to share a bicycle without destroying their friendships.
November 1: Come for the Racing, Stay for the Brewery
This is one of the most unique races on the calendar. Come for the racing. Stay for the brewery. Stick around for your favorite BASP community.
November 1. Mare Island UCX. The best urban cyclocross race in the world – at least until someone proves us wrong.
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