108 signed up.
75 started.
64 reached the Pacific.
Sean Ross wins the 2026 ADV Cannonball Rally by only 14 points after eight days, one continent and no sweep truck.
The 2026 ADV Cannonball Rally left Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts on September 16 and finished in Monterey, California on September 23. In between were eight days, eight overnight stops, 100 GPS checkpoints and no support crew for anyone.
The rally sold out and kept a waitlist. In all, 108 riders signed up, 75 took the start and 64 reached Monterey. They came from 26 US states, Canada, Norway and England. When scoring closed, Sean Ross of North Carolina had won by only 14 points, on a BMW R1250GSA wearing the number 3.
The winner, and the Steak Knives
Sean Ross finished with 1,122 points. He took the first to arrive bonus on Day 1 and Day 3, missed only four checkpoints in eight days, and stamped the Monterey finish line at 4:03 PM on the last afternoon, 57 minutes before scoring closed.
He won this rally the way it is meant to be won. He leaned on what he learned in 2025. He brought a motorcycle he trusted. He was consistently quick, he made good navigation choices and he never stopped moving. There were no wheelies down the highway and no hooligan heroics. It was real skill on and off the road, technical preparation and navigation, with a relentlessly positive attitude on top.
This rally has one winner. Second place gets the Steak Knives, and nobody else is ranked. This year the Steak Knives went to Josh Skidmore of Utah, on 1,108 points. He and Sean rode much of the final day within seconds of each other. Then a navigation error in the California coastal hills cost Josh the afternoon. He missed three ten point checkpoints, the finish line among them, and any two would have won him the rally. He rode in after the cutoff knowing exactly what had happened, and he could not have been cooler about it.
The final day was complicated for everyone. A fire in those same hills put at least one checkpoint out of reach.
READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT AT
https://www.advcannonball.com/news/press-release-2026-adv-rally
Some really inspiring moments and experiences here.
