Lindine wins Nor'Easter 'Cross

Justin Lindine (BikeReg.com / Joe's Garage / Scott) powered his way to victory at the Nor'Easter ‘Cross presented by Smartwool and Cycle-Smart on Saturday. Lindine (BikeReg.com / Joe's Garage / Scott) took control of the Elite men's race early on en route to a solo victory.

"My teammate, Jerome [Townsend] took the hole shot and pinned himself pretty hard, so I sat in for a few minutes early before attacking," said Lindine. As Townsend began to fade, Lindine was able to bridge up and catapult off of Townsend's strong start to give him a chance at victory.

While Lindine was pushing off the front, the battle for the remainder of the podium was pitched between Dylan McNicholas (Pedro's) and the recently un-retired Phil Wong (Seaside Cycle/Antero Resources). The two were taking hard pulls and closing the gap to Lindine for several laps before McNicholas picked up a safety pin with his tubular and was forced to ride a flat tire for almost a full lap to the pit.

With McNicholas gone, Wong's chances of catching Lindine became slim and he was able to race defensively for second. Behind him, McNicholas was doing all he could to regain second position but never got closer than thirty seconds. Behind him, Adam Myerson (Cycle-Smart) and Justin Spinelli (Richard Sachs/RGM/Radix) did their best bring back McNicholas, but the Pedro's rider was fueled by anger and held on for the best UCI result of his career.

Myerson was able to pull away from Spinelli on the longer of the two climbs on the course and held the chase off for fourth with Spinelli fifth. Sixth position went to Manny Goguen (bikereg.com/Joe's Garage/Scott) who, coming from an early mechanical, had the race of his life, picking up valuable UCI points.

The first-year UCI race at Loon Mountain in Lincoln, New Hampshire took full advantage of the terrain by mixing two challenging climbs, several off-camber descents, two run-ups and two long paved straightaways linking the sides of the course. The unique course wrapped around and through the Nor'Easter Festival powered by EMS, going in front of the main concert stage and around the rock climbing competition. For the race organizers, this was an opportunity to show a largely unfamiliar audience what cyclo-cross is all about.