Katie Compton leads the UCI world rankings for Womens Elite Cyclocross racers. This is the first time an American (male or female) has ever led this prestigious competition. UCI rankings can be found here. Congrats to Katie on this huge accomplishment! Jonathan Page has been racing the past few weeks in Europe and posting some solid results. Full reports can be found on his website
Results include:
10/17 Ardooie - 13th 10/18 Pizen World Cup - 13th 10/21 Nacht von Woerden - 7th 10/25 Koppenberg - 18th
Another great weekend of UCI racing for Team Planet Bike. James, Kaitie, Kristin, Linda, and Tristan headed up to Canada to participate in the C1 and C2 events in Toronto, Ontario. The races were well organized and unique courses greeted the riders each day. Sunny and cool weather kept conditions relatively clean and fast both days.
Saturday's course was situated on a ski hill and included a lot of elevation change each lap. In the womens race Natasha Elliot and Pepper Harlton shot off the front on the first lap with all three Planet Bike riders sitting in the top 10. Linda and Kristin both moved into the top 5 on the second lap as Elliot took the lead. photo thanks to Dave McElwainephoto thanks to Peter Kraiker
They both passed Harlton with just over a lap to go and went on to finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively. After battling some stomach issues Kaitie had a strong last lap and was able to pass 4 riders and finish an incredible 4th place. photo thanks to Peter Kraiker
Sunday's course was on the opposite side of the park and included more technical twists, turns, and ditches in addition to several short steep climbs. 17 year old Kaitie was the talk of the race riding into 2nd place with 2 laps to go. Looking incredibly strong and fluid on the course she was making up time on Elliot who went on to win by only 15 seconds. photo thanks to Dave McElwaine
Linda finished 4th with Kristin in 6th. Another strong showing for the Planet Bike women who were able to gather lots of UCI points this weekend.
The Planet Bike men again had strong races as they moved up within the field and settled into the same finishing positions as Saturday. Tristan on the podium in 5th and James was 13th. photo thanks to Peter Kraiker
Thanks to everyone associated with putting on these great races! Also thanks to the great photographers at the event Jon Safka, Peter Kraiker, and Dave McElwaine. We had a blast meeting some really nice folks in Toronto and they have a cool cross scene there. Big thanks to Dave from Minneapolis who served as our mechanic and helped us out throughout the weekend. As always thanks to all of our great sponsors for helping make things happen so we can travel and race at events like these! Thanks to Planet Bike, Edge, Lazer, Ridley, TRP!
Several Planet Bike riders headed to the Cincinnati area this past weekend for a rare opportunity to race three consecutive days of UCI events. Nearly 48 hours of rain leading up to the races caused the course for Friday to be slick and muddy. Staying upright through the numerous off camber sections proved difficult. Katie Compton was conservative on the first lap but put the jets on the remainder of the race and easily took the win. Linda Sone took advantage of her strong technical skills and was in the hunt for third. Unable to outsprint Winfield, Linda took an impressive 4th place. Kaitie Antonneau was riding in a solid 6th place before a snapped derailleur hanger forced her to abandon the race. Kristin struggled in the sloppy mud but finished 11th. Mark Lalonde rode a very strong race and finished in 4th.
All the photos here are thanks to the wonderfully talented Lyne Lamoureux. Her photography and race reports are some of the best out there. Check out her website Podium in Sight. Huge thanks to her for being out there!
Katie Compton won the first World Cup race in Treviso, Italy on Sunday by nearly 30 seconds over her closest competitor. Taking control on the first lap, Katie demonstrated her dominance the entire race. The win puts Compton in the World Cup leaders jersey. The next race will be November 11 in Nommay, France.
Meanwhile back in the US Jonathan Page was racing in Gloucester, MA. Day 1 treated the riders to wet, muddy conditions and Page capitalized on his technical skills to win the race by nearly 2 minutes on Saturday. Day 2 was a drier course and a group of 4 riders emerged with Page the odd man out against three Cyclocrossworld.com riders - Jamey Driscoll, Tim Johnson, and Jeremy Powers. An unfortunate crash between Page and Johnson caused Page to have to chase after Johnson for the remaining 2 laps and he was unable to make up the time. He finished a strong 2nd place.
Great weekend of racing in Madison, Wisconsin - the hometown of Planet Bike. Highlights included back to back wins by Katie Compton in the Elite Womens race and two 3rd place finishes for Jonathan Page in the Elite Mens race. Here's a rundown of results. More reports and photos to come.
The 2010 Cyclocross Season was kicked off with style in Las Vegas during the Interbike trade show on Wednesday September 23. Planet Bike was out in force with international superstars Katie Compton and Jonathan Page both participating in the event. Other Planet Bike riders present in the Elite races included Kristin Wentworth, Mark Lalonde, and James Lalonde. The racing was held under the lights on a soccer field and thousands of spectators lined the course to watch athletes from around the world battle to be the king and queen of Las Vegas cyclocross.
Katie took control of the womens race on the first lap and never looked back. Only Katerina Nash was able to stick to Katie's wheel and following a mishap on the second lap Katie rode the following 30 minutes of the race solo to take the victory by a minute.
Kristin settled into a group with Amy Dombroski, Laura Van Gilder, and Alison Sydor for the majority of the race and finished 13th.
The mens field was filled with riders from across the world and over 100 racers on the line. After an impressive first lap a group of about 20 riders, including Jonathan, appeared to have a bit of a gap on the rest of the field. An attack on lap 2 by Chris Jones proved to be the winning move with Jamey Driscoll bridging up to him shortly after. A chase group of about 7 formed but a lack of organization and a solid effort by the two leaders prevented a regrouping. Jonathan tried a few attacks from the group but the gap proved too far to bridge and he settled into a group of 4 chasers. In the final 400 meters of the race Page displayed his sprinting power to take the final podium spot and finish 3rd in the race.
Mark and James battled throughout the race. The hot, dry conditions proved troublesome to both riders and they finished 27th and 50th, respectively.
