CX Nationals Day 3

The third day of Cyclocross Nationals began early in the morning with Bob Downs racing his masters mens event at 8:30. The entire Planet Bike team came out to rally on their leader.

Bob had a great start and was sitting in the top 5 after the first lap.

photo: Mark Legg

He moved up to 3rd by the third lap and was looking strong. The technical, slippery course was causing trouble for many riders, however, and Bob went down hard on the back section of the course.

photo: Mark Legg

Another couple of bobbles after that and he had soon fallen out of the top 10. A valiant effort, nonetheless, and Bob's form was demonstrated by his strong showing in the early laps.

CX Magazine report, Cyclingnews

Following Bob's race the entire team gathered for a team photo. With 16 riders participating at Nationals this year it was truly special to have everyone together. Spanning all age categories Team Planet Bike is a force to be reckoned with!


After the team photo Katie Compton had something special to present to Bob for Planet Bike's support of her this season.
As the leader of the UCI World Cup competition Katie wears a special white leader's jersey and presented Bob with this. She is the first American (man or woman) to ever lead this prestigious competition and has been wearing the jersey in World Cup races since she won the first race in the series on October 4.

Another few team pictures were taken including a womens team shot

and one of all the juniors on the team

The afternoon races consisted of some masters mens events for the 30-40 year old guys. The crowds were huge and raucous.

So were the fields of riders. Chris, Curtis, Jerry, and Geoff lined up with nearly 170 of their closest friends to contest the 35-39 age category.
Planet Bike East Coast Team members Curtis finished 12th, Jerry 83rd, and Geoff 88th. Chris was also duking it out in the race and he made it more laps than he had predicted and looked strong out on the course. Nice racing guys!

Masters reports - CX Magazine, Cyclingnews


And thus concluded the day of sanctioned racing. A special Clydesdale race occured later that evening under the lights. With a weigh in determining start order and costumes encouraged the race drew lots of spectators. Planet Bike also donated some new Blaze 2W lights to riders and the course was lit up well.
And it was terribly slippery as temps dropped below freezing and off camber grass sections become icy. Crashes were prevalent.

Here is Planet Bike East Coast team member Geoff Williams. Nice lights Geoff (notice the ones turned backwards as an attempt to blind his competition?)

CX Nationals Day 2

The second day of Nationals had Planet Bike riders participating in nearly every event. The morning began with the junior women and had Kaitie in the Womens 17-18 category and Sarah in the Womens 15-16. The two groups were on the course at the same time - the younger riders starting 20 seconds behind the older category. The cold conditions caused the snow covered course to be slippery in several spots and attempting to stay upright was on the minds of the riders.

Kaitie led the first half lap of her race before a crash forced her to chase after defending national champion Coryn Rivera. photo: Dave McElwaine

Another bobble by Kaitie increased the gap but she soon got in a rhythm and pulled ahead of the competition to sit comfortably in second. She rode smoothly the rest of the race and was closing down the gap to Rivera but there wasn't enough time in the 30 minute race.

photo: Lyne Lamoureux

Congrats to Kaitie on a strong race and a great 2nd place finish. The Team Planet Bike cheering section was out in full force including Katie Compton.

photo: Mark Legg

Sarah was racing at the same time as Kaitie and rode an incredible race as she was off the front the entire time. There was no competition as Sarah made the tough course conditions look easy and actually rode past all the 17-18 girls except for the top 3.

photo: Dave McElwaine

Congratulations to Sarah on an impressive ride and her second straight US National title.

photo: Lyne Lamoureux

Junior Women reports
CX Magazine
Cyclingnews

The junior men were next to take the course and Ian raced the 13-14 age category. Starting in the fourth row Ian was patient in moving up and by the end of the first lap was in the top 5. Near the end of the second lap he had moved into second place and a tactical attack at the start of the last lap put him in the lead.

photo: Lyne Lamoureux

Riding smoothly on the final lap Ian increased his lead and came across the line for the win.

photo: Lyne Lamoureux

Congratulations to Ian on his first national championship and a well ridden race.

Next up was Jordan Cullen in the 15-16 junior mens race. After a few slips on the course Jordan was picking off the competition and moved up to finish a strong 8th place.

Junior Men reports
CX Magazine
Cyclingnews

Following the junior races came the singlespeed race and three riders from the East Coast grassroots team represented for Planet Bike.

Curtis Boivin was 8th

photo: Dave McElwaine

Jerry Chabot 33rd

Geoff Williams 68th

SingleSpeed reports
CX Magazine
Cyclingnews

Nice racing guys!

After a brief break for the noon hour the Planet Bike riders again stormed the course for the afternoon races. First up was the 40+ Masters women with Toni racing in the 40-44 and Diane in the 55-59 category.

In her first time competing at Nationals Toni had a solid race and finished 23rd.

Diane was out to try to win a third straight National title and her determination was evident. Taking the lead early she never looked back and steadily increased her gap.

By the end Diane crossed the line nearly 2 minutes ahead of her nearest competition.

Congrats to Diane on an impressive ride and her 3rd straight National Championship!!

The next races were two more Masters womens events with Kristin in the 30-34 and Linda in the 35-39 category. With Linda's group starting immediately behind Kristin's the course was packed with riders. Warming temperatures and plentiful sun had changed the course and the mud was starting to appear along with some still icy stretches.

Kristin had some difficulty with the slippery conditions and finished 15th.

photo: Dave McElwaine

Linda rode a strong race and had to pass by many women in the 30-34 category. She had a great showing and finished 2nd.

photo: Dave McElwaine

Masters Women reports
CX Magazine
Cyclingnews

Full day report - Podium In Sight report

Some podium shots from the successful day - all courtesy of Amy Dykema

Diane and her 3rd consecutive Nationals win

Linda on the 2nd step

Kaitie and Linda both like silver

A great showing by all Planet Bike riders on the day. A team dinner later in the evening allowed for some cleaned up photos of the champions on the day and a womens team shot.

CX Nationals Day 1

US Cyclocross Nationals kicked off on Thursday, December 10, with Category B races in the morning. Planet Bike rider Sarah used the Womens B event as a tune up for her junior race on Day 2. The 8:30AM race was frigidly cold with temps in the single digits and a snow covered, icy course greeted riders. Sarah had an impressive race and finished 8th.

Planet Bike employee and racer Chris Follmer also tried his hand at the B race and finished 78th.

B race reports

CX Magazine report
Cyclingnews report

Following the morning races came the Masters Men event which had Gordy and Glen both racing in the 55-59 age category. The sun and rising temps only made the course more slippery and the guys faced difficult conditions. The below photo shows both Planet Bike riders with Greg in red and Gordy in black.

photo: Lyne Lamoureux

Both Gordy and Glen raced hard and were victim to a few crashes on the slippery course.

photo: Lyne Lamoureux

Solid finishes by both riders with Greg finishing 16th and Gordy in 23rd. Nice work guys!

CX Magazine report
Cyclingnews report
Podium in Sight report

Page 8th at World Cup in Spain

World Cup #5 took place on Sunday in Igorre Spain and Jonathan Page had a strong showing in his final European race before returning to the US to compete at Nationals. A muddy course greeted riders and Page rode an excellent race finishing 8th only a minute behind winner Zdenek Stybar.

Cyclingnews report

Cyclocross Magazine report

Jonathan will now travel to Bend to compete in the US National Championships on Sunday December 13.

Podium in Sight interview

Kaitie A. in CX Magazine, Compton atop UCI rankings

Planet Bike's 17 year old sensation Kaitie Antonneau was recently featured in an interview in Cyclocross Magazine. Kaitie has been racing a full UCI schedule this season and been racking up points across the country.

Read the interview here

UCI rankings were also updated this week and the Planet Bike women dominate the top 50. Katie Compton remains solidly in 1st place, with Kristin in 39th, Linda 40th, and Kaitie 43rd. Way to go ladies!

On the men's side Jonathan Page sits in 22nd with Mark in 75th, Tristan 87th, and James 175th.

Full UCI rankings

Koksidje World Cup

photo: Bart Hazen

Planet Bike riders Katie Compton and Jonathan Page were in Belgium to race World Cup #4 in Koksidge. The course featured several sand dunes that often force riders to dismount and run. A series of unfortunate crashes early on caused Compton to have to fight her way back into the race. Demonstrating her strength she rode herself onto the podium in 3rd place behind Vos and Van den Brand.

Womens report

After the completion of 4 World Cup events, Compton continues to wear the World Cup leaders jersey. photo: Bart Hazen

Katie now heads back to the United States to compete at Nationals in Bend where she will seek her 6th straight US title.

Cyclingnews article

In the mens race Jonathan was also faced with some bad luck and two flat tires left him chasing. Despite posting the second fastest lap time of the day Page couldn't make up the time lost due to the mechanical and finished 27th.
Mens report

photo: Bart Hazen

Cyclingnews article

Planet Bike Podiums at Jingle Cross

Team Planet Bike was out in force for the three day Jingle Cross UCI events in Iowa. Nearly 15 riders participated in the various races with podium finishes for many.

Races were held Friday night under the lights and the record rainfall for the month of November created a sloppy, muddy course. Mixed with sections of pea gravel the conditions caused broken derailleurs for many riders. Bike changes were crucial and luckily the Elites all were able to do this thanks to all the great support in the pit. Besides the mud, riders also had to battle up and down Mt. Krumpet each lap with a steep leg busting run up and off camber switchbacks on the descent.

In the womens race after leading the first lap Kaitlin hung on for second behind a strong Meredith Miller. Kristin rounded out the podium for 3rd with Linda not far behind in 4th.

In the mens race Mark finished just off the podium for 4th with the win going to Todd Wells.

Other top results included 14 year old Jordan Cullen finishing 3rd in the Mens 2/3 race.

Friday night - report , full results

photo: jared roy


Saturday brought unusually mild temperatures and lots of sun. The mud was still present but got tackier as the day wore on. A different route up and down Mt. Krumpet today with riders ascending an incredibly steep and muddy run up.

In the womens race Meredith Miller once again proved unstoppable with Linda riding strong to finish 2nd. Kristin was 4th, Kaitie 6th, and Patti 15th.

photo: jared roy

In the mens race Todd Wells rode to a second win with a group of 4 including Planet Bike riders Tristan and Mark. Tristan rode to an impressive 2nd place finish with Mark in 4th after a crash late in the race forced him to chase. James had a strong race and was 11th.

Saturday - report

Sunday was another dry day but this time the temps dropped and the wind picked up. The mud was thick and tacky and not as much of an issue as the previous two days. Yet another trip up and down the feared Mt. Krumpet with some steep switchbacks down that caused some spectacular crashes throughout the day. Iowa felt a bit like Portland in the morning when a group of bikini clad single speeders took the course.
In the womens race Kristin led out the first half a lap before being passed by Meredith. A crash on the descent allowed Kaitie to catch and pass Kristin and the two finished on the podium in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. A hard charging Linda finished in 4th and Patti was 14th.

photo: nikkicyp

In the mens race Marko and Tristan again both rode strong races and finished 3rd and 4th, respectively. James was 16th.

photo: nikkicyp

Sunday - report

Velonews weekend report

There were plenty of mentions of Planet Bike riders throughout the weekend. Other riders participating included:

Jordan - winner of the both Saturday and Sunday's Mens 15-17 races.
Sarah - winner of the Womens Junior 15-17 race both days.

Greg

Gordy

Diane

Thanks to all of the Planet Bike family for making the trip down to Iowa. Everyone had a great time at the races. Here is part of the crew at a team dinner on Saturday night.

Huge thanks to the entire support crew for the weekend - with extra thanks to Chris, Jim, Dave G., Daniel, and Dave S.!