Lindine on top again in Maine

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Despite a horrible start, Justin Lindine (Bikereg.com/Joe’s Garage) fought back today and took a convincing victory. Dylan McNicholas (Cyclocrossworld.com), Saturday’s winner, led early but could not push as hard today due to a back strain. He finished second. Luke Keough (Champion Systems p/b Keough Racing) completed another solid weekend with a third place finish.

Saturday’s heavy rain made the course at Pineland Farm quite muddy in spots. There were several points at which the riders were forced to run their bikes. Some of these sections were quite long so if you were able to stay on your bike while others ran, it amounted to a huge time advantage.

The men’s start was chaotic and dangerous. McNicholas took the hole-shot but half a dozen riders barely escaped crashing into the fences. “Someone came from one side of the field to the other side of the field and almost took out half the race” explained Lindine.

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Lindine must have thought that the cycling Gods were going to wreak havoc on him again as they did on Saturday when he broke one bike, crashed, and then was forced to ride a mud-laden pit bike the rest of the event.

But today was different. Lindine bridged up to the leaders within half a lap. McNicholas appeared to be the strongest rider, but on lap three Lindine bolted out of the group and never had to look back. He opened up a 20-second lead within one lap.

“I was super-motivated today after a disaster day yesterday” explained Lindine. “I liked the course better. It was harder pedaling. I took control of the race…and that’s how I like to race.”

Luke Keough and his brother Nick seemed like they were going to team up in the early laps but Nick fell off the blistering pace. Luke could never quite reel in McNicholas but kept it close the whole race. As a young rider, his consistency has been quite impressive.

McNicholas was happy with his weekend “I’ll take it. First and second place. It’s actually exactly the same as I finished last year.”

Lindine has a planned beak in his schedule next weekend. He will be competing for his sixth consecutive UCI win at the Cycle-Smart International held in Northampton, MA two weeks from now.

Race Note:
Jesse Anthony was a surprise entry in today’s race. He had previously announced that the Grand Prix of Gloucester would be his only cyclo-cross race this year. For once he planned to take a proper off-season after a very successful year on the road. After finishing fifth today he said, “Now I’m really done. I was really bummed at how Gloucester went. My back was really hurting even though I had great fitness. I just wanted to do one more fun race.”