To be sure I know what the issue is, let me repeat it back.

You're defining in your route some defaults, with id being null, the action being "Index", and page=1. With your route, you're specifying:

      RouteTable.Routes.Add( new Route
      {
        Url = "[controller]/[action]/[id]",
        Defaults = new { action = "Index", id = (string)null, page = 1 },
        RouteHandler = typeof( MvcRouteHandler )
      } );

And the issue you're seeing is that if an action has an argument called "page", it's not being set to 1 - correct? 

If I'm getting closer here - did you define a route the ties "page" into the Url? Like this:

      RouteTable.Routes.Add( new Route
      {
        Url = "[controller]/[action]/[page]",
        Defaults = new { action = "List", page = 1 },
        RouteHandler = typeof( MvcRouteHandler )
      } ); 

 You have to be explicit with respect to args, their name, and the Routes. Am I getting closer? :):)