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Riding High at the Ranch, Race #4 Cal State Dirt MTB

This was my first trip to Susanville and I had little information on this trail. It looked to have a lot of climbing so I chose to stick with my hardtail Trek Super fly and a seat dropper. It rained most of the day before the race but the trails soil soaked it up well and conditions where almost perfect. Our start was a Mass start of about 40 Pro's/CAT 1 and single speeders. We had a 1/2 mile or so of single track that lead us to Paul Bunyan Logging road. The next mile plus was 3% grade with plenty of room to pass. As we started up the nearly 8 mile single track climb to the highest peak of the race, I managed to stay with the leaders of my age group. The climb was never steep but did have a few soft corners due to the rain. With about a mile left from the top Paul Miers (1st) was beginning to pull away from me. Craig Lindberg (3rd) went around me to catch him. I felt good but without knowing the trail did not want to chance blowing up by going any harder. The top came sooner than I expected but the downhill was not much of a rest. For the next 5 miles the trail headed down long well curved switch backs with short climbs throughout. The downhill never felt fast or steep. At the bottom near the Start/Finish they had us do a second lap up Paul Bunyan and the first climbing section of single track. It was at the beginning of this lap that I passed Craig and moved into 2nd place. I caught up to team mate Willson Perry (slowed by a flat and wrong turn) and stayed with for him for about five minutes. As I made the last turn back to the finish I looked back to see where Craig was but did not see him. I pulled in at about 2:41. Long race with a good amount of climbing. The trail was once again a solid very worthy race course that provided plenty of challenges.

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