A group of six experienced cyclists chased their limits by riding 200 miles through Rancho Santa Fe in North County San Diego from daybreak to sunset. This event was a collaboration with
MAAP’s Global Ride Series.
Every year, the Spring Equinox means more than just a few hours of extra daylight. For cyclists, it indicates a seasonal transition into endurance training. More daylight means more time outdoors and on the saddle.
Team Best Cycling Club partnered with MAAP to honor the blossoming season in a greater extreme — cycling 200 miles within 12 hours, from sunrise to sunset. This collaboration was part of MAAP’s Global Ride Series and represented the cycling community in the Greater San Diego area.
The route included 7 ½ laps of the cycling club’s iconic Thunder Thursday ride, which kicks off on each year’s Spring Equinox and repeats every week.
Team Best Cycling Club
Team Best is a cycling club founded in 2020 in North Country, San Diego. They bring a lively and youthful energy to the cycling community with their weekly Thunder Thursday race-pace ride, endurance series challenges, holiday-themed social rides, and iconic 2-beer-minimum rule at Best Pizza in Cardiff after each event.
6 of the founding club members, all extremely experienced cyclists, volunteered as tribute to take upon the 200-mile challenge and display a dashing start to the club’s Thunder Thursday season.
Cyclists:
Andy Haggerty
Ansel Smolund
Beril Polat
Luke Creger
James Lawrence
Jasen Missailidis
Thunder Thursday is Team Best’s weekly ride that starts at 5:15 pm (hence the spring equinox), rolls out of Best Pizza in Cardiff, and laps 28 miles through the Rancho Santa Fe neighborhoods at a sprint-like pace, where cyclists push each other to unlock record times on segments.
MAAP
MAAP (Melbourne Aesthetic Apparel Powerhouse) is a high-end cycling apparel company, known for its performance quality, seamless designs, and global athlete partnerships. MAAP works with ambassadors around the world to organize group rides and encourage cyclists to get out on the roads to rack up miles.
MAAP has been a generous sponsor and loyal supporter of Team Best as they represent the progressive nature of cycling within the San Diego community. In addition to equipping the team with their latest kit collection for the Spring Equinox challenge, they collaborated on an exclusive 2025 club kit design, which sold out to devoted Team Best members.
200 MILES 12 HOURS
200 MILES 12 HOURS
The crew began rolling at the break of dawn, with a few supportive members joining the pack for a lap before their 9 am shifts.
As the sky slowly enveloped in light, the group slowly warmed up for the extensive day ahead of them.
7 00 AM START
7 00 PM FINISH
BEHIND THE SCENES
As the creative producer for this event, I had to play a fun game of tag to catch up with this speedy group and capture them in action.
I had several pin-pointed locations I prepared to stop at beforehand, but candidly, I spent the first lap chasing after them in my car and missed them by a few seconds several times (turns out biking is faster than driving after all!). I considered that as a warm-up lap and figured out which roads I could beat them to. My strategy for the next several laps was to arrive at a more distant location, set up my video shot, position myself for the photo once their location started nearing, and then wait…. Once I could hear their churning gears in the distance, I would lock in because there was about 1 chance to capture a solid photo as they zoomed past at 25mph. Then rinse and repeat at several locations.
I drove just about as many miles in my car as the crew did on their bikes.
Several laps in, I recruited my buddy Matt Kendall, the local mobile bike mechanic (hit him up if you’re in the area), to take control of my wheel while I stuck half of my body out of my trunk and rear windows to capture some roller shots. This was the most efficient approach, and it gave me a chance to hype up the team and throw em’ some much needed snacks.
