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The 1st Annual Jonathon Page Planet Bike Classic was held today in Sun Prairie, WI. The Angel Park Speedway venue is just a few miles east of downtown Madison and featured a fairly technical course with numerous off-camber switchbacks that caused trouble for many riders including one of the pre-race favorites in the men’s race. Yet, in the end it was Jonathon Page (Planet Bike) who easily rode away from the rest of the field to take the victory over Mikael Muehler (Switzerland–riding in a Planet Bike team kit) and Bjorn Selander (Ridley Factory).

The women’s elite race was a one woman show from the start as Natasha Elliot (EMD Serono/Stevens) took the hole shot and maintained her position to win by 20 seconds over Sarah Kerlin (HRS-Rock Lobster) and Devon Haskel (Pony Shop). Haskel was able to keep her third place over a hard charging Anna Young (Planet Bike). Young is the current Juniors 17-18 National Champion and showed that she will definitely be a force in the coming years as she performed extremely well in front of her local fans.

The Men’s race started out with a tight hole shot victory by Jonathon Page. He was followed closely by 2007 Jingle Cross winner Todd Wells (GT) and Jonathon Baker (Vitamin Cottage). As the leading pack began to pull away from the field on the decisively technical down hill section it was beginning to look like a duel between two of the top cyclocross racers in the nation, but just as this was beginning to happen Wells rolled a tubular and was forced to dismount before heading into the pit quite a ways down on the leaders. Baker was the only rider to make it through the melee caused by Wells’ misfortune and he was able to hold on to Page’s wheel for 3 more laps before being dropped and eventually caught by the Muehler led chase group that also contained Troy Wells (Clif Bar) and Selander.

As Page solidified his lead it became a race for second place as Selander, Muehler and Troy Wells launched attacks on one another. Going into the final lap Selander launched the most vicious of the attacks and seemed to move clear from Muehler and the quickly fading Troy Wells. As the riders approached the barriers in the middle of the course it looked as if Selander had enough to hold on, but Muehler fought to get onto the Ridley riders wheel and it was on the last climb up to the precipice of the descent that Muehler put in the final attack to take the second step.

The race continues tomorrow with another race at the same venue, but run in an opposite direction up the steep switchback climb. It also means that we will be able to see a showdown between Todd Wells and Page as they both look to add more UCI points to their coffers.

The top local women’s rider was Linda Sone (Ridley) in 9th place and Maria Stewart (Velo Bella) in 11th place in a very deep womens field. The top finish from a local rider was Duane Dickey’s (Flanders) convincing win in the 40+ race and a close 2nd place finish to the 30+ winner who started 2minutes clear in the first wave of the masters race. Jordan Cullen also managed a victory in the Juniors 10-14 field as he took second overall.

Former Kenwood racers Jesse and Marko Lalonde finished in the top 15, while their younger brother James took the Cat3 win on a Single Speed by a convincing 2 minute margin over the closest rider.

Official Results