Laminar-turbulent transition plays an essential role in determining the flow characteristics of a bluff body. In flow past a rotating cylinder, for Reynolds number (Re) greater than 35k, the boundary layer on the counter-flow side of the cylinder undergoes a laminar-turbulent transition. This results in a lift crisis, i.e., a regime of decreased lift, for a narrow band of non-dimensionless rotation speeds. For Re 60k, a decline in lift coefficient is observed at = 0.48 and continues to decline till = 0.6, after which it increases monotonically. For Re 140k, the experiments suggest the decline just after = 0 that continues till = 0.2. In this paper, this phenomenon is studied for Re 60k and 140k with the Spalart-Allmaras (SA)-BCM transition model for dimensionless rotation speeds varying from 0 to 2. It is found that the results of the transition model are qualitatively comparable with the experiments for both Reynolds numbers. For Re 60k, the transition model predicted the experiment better than LES until the onset of lift crisis, but failed to predict the lift crisis. For Re 140k, the SA-BCM predicted values better than LES. In all cases the transition SA-BCM model predicted values better than the SA model, thereby underscoring the importance of the laminar-turbulent boundary layer transition on the drag and lift computations of bluff bodies. © 2022, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.