Durango’s Altitude Kind To Pendry

The NORBA series finals were held on the fabled Durango Mountain Resort trails. Three circuits around the course included 1500 feet of climbing per 9-mile lap. Course altitude ranged from 7700 feet at the base to 9200 feet at the highest point.

BTD Racing’s Charlie Pendry and Frank’s Cyclery owner Frank Jones made the trip for BTD. After an excellent start and riding in the top ten for the first lap, Charlie paid a small price the second time around, loosing a few spots to the mid twenties. CP recovered nicely though, bringing it home for a 21st place finish.

Charlie Pendry is having a long, but productive season, traveling to all eight NORBA series races. His hard work paid off in a 34th place overall for the series.

Charlie Pendry’s final two planned peaks this long season include:

09/27 NORBA US National Championships in Mammoth, CA

10/30 Collegiate National Championships at Seven Springs, PA

Upcoming BTD StuffWeekly: Thursday group mtn bike rides at Umstead/Crabtree parks.

Weekly: Wednesdays, Sept 8-Oct 20, Cyclocross Training workouts at Brooks Park in Cary

9/5: Tour de Moore Century, Southern Pines, NC

9/10-12: Carolina Cup race weekend, Greensboro, NC

9/23-24: NORBA National Championships marathon & cross country

10/02: Frank’s Cyclery/Storm Coaching/ BTD Racing cyclocross clinic

Devo Out duels Back To Dirt Duo

199 racers lined up for stop # 8 on the NC State Cross Country Championship series. Back To Dirt racing’s two Charlie’s, Pendry and Storm were sure to dominate here today. The Winston Salem course was pretty much Pendry’s home course since he began racing here in 1995 at age 15. With his recent win at the Mt. Mitchell marathon, Pendry is really coming into form in preparation for this year’s late season collegiate and elite national championships. Surely Storm, one of the quickest twisty singletrack riders in the country could not loose on this roller coaster course.

Rising Balance Bar/Devo rider Brent Brookwalter of Comstock, MI, back in the NC area for college, had other plans. With Pendry leading out, Storm, Pendry and Brookwalter rode wheel to wheel for most of the first lap until a slide out by Storm instantly lost him 45 seconds that he never made up. Ninety minutes and multiple attacks later, Pendry and Brookwalter came to the finish line shoulder to shoulder as they had raced for two hours. An extra wide final turn by Brookwalter gave him the advantage to slip across the finish line just ahead of BTD Racing’s Pendry. A too late final charge by Storm found him still 20 seconds down in third.

Pendry and Brookwalter had blazed around the twisty NC clay course 5 minutes faster than the 2002 Duel between Storm and top US cross country pro, Ryan Trebon. BTD Racing’s team mentor, Rob Moran called upon years of racing experience to finish 4th in a hotly contested Master’s field which was won by Storm coached athlete, Wake Fulp. Back To Dirt’s Thursday group mountain bike ride leader, Scott Whitworth, continued his success in the 20-29 sport category with a 3rd place effort.

Upcoming BTD Stuff

Weekly: Thursday group mtn bike rides at Umstead/Crabtree parks.

Weekly: Wednesdays, Sept 8-Oct 20, Cyclocross Training workouts at Brooks Park in Cary

8/28: Charlie Pendry at Durango NORBA XC Series Finals

9/5: Tour de Moore Century, Southern Pines, NC

9/10-12: Carolina Cup race weekend, Greensboro, NC

9/23-24: NORBA National Championships marathon & cross country

A Page Written in East Coast MTB History

If you wanted to race this past weekend and you lived on the east coast, you had to be a mountain biker and there was only one place you could go, the 16th edition of the Massanutten Hoo Ha XC at Massanutten Resort in Harrisonburg VA. For those of you who are out of the dirt loop, Harrisonburg is the current reigning capital of human powered fat tire cycling. It is smack dab in the middle of the east coasts’ Allegheny mountains, halfway point on the Appalachian trail, headquarters of one of the best bike shops on the east coast (sdfnjk), the most progressive mountain bike touring and race promotion company (Shenandoah Mountain Touring), and home to the fastest cross country rider in the U.S., Jeremiah Bishop.

Back To Dirt’s Charlie Storm went Hoo Ha to do battle with Bishop, top U.S. U-23 rider Nick Waite and 3-time reigning solo 24 hour World Champion, Chris Eatough. Waite, Bishop and Eatough have all raced multiple times on the Hoo Ha course, which is famous for the gnarliest ridge top crossing in the east. The rivalry between the East Coast’s top Dirt Pros, Storm, Bishop and Eatough continues into it’s 7th season.

The trio plus Waite raced wheel to wheel for 40 minutes until Bishop opened a small gap across the ridge line. The quartet never separated by more than 90 seconds, etching a eternal page in Appalachian Fat tire history, Trek’s Bishop out dueled for the win. Storm rode his sweetly equipped Fuji Hardtail to a hard fought 2nd place at 1:30 behind Bishop, with Specialized’s Waite and Trek’s Eatough 30 and 60 seconds back. The quartet pushed each other so hard that Bishop snatched 15 minutes from the course record and was 20 minutes ahead of 5th place.

Upcoming BTD Stuff

8/22 Hobby Park/Cane Creek/NC State Series XC race; Winston Salem ,NC

8/29 Durango NORBA Series Finals; Durango, CO

9/5 Tour de Moore Century; Southern Pines, NC

9/12 Winston Crit, Elon Crit, Carolina Cup Crit; Greensboro, NC

9/26 NORBA National Championships Cross Country and Marathon; Mammoth, CA

9/6- 10/10 Weekly, Wednesday evening cyclocross training workouts at Brooks Park in Cary, NC

The Back to Dirt team has been in action all across the country for the past two weeks. There were the two NORBA National races in Sandpoint, Idaho and Snowmass Village, Colorado that saw Daniel Doub and Charlie Pendry competing. There was also a hectic schedule of racing in North Carolina with the Crossroads Classic criterium series and the Showdown at Sugar mountain bike race, both of which saw several Back to Dirt riders leave their mark on the results lists.

With lots of action, improving courses, top competitors, and many spectators the Crossroads Classic gets better every year. Rob Moran, Taylor Jones, and Charlie Storm all participated in the crits which took place all over central North Carolina. Charlie Storm proved to be the iron man of the weekend after participating in seven races over three days. He didn’t just finish every race either–Charlie finished second in Friday’s Masters 35+ race and won Saturday’s Master’s event. To top of an excellent weekend, Charlie went to Sugar Mountain where he won the Pro event against some of the Southeast’s top competition. Back to Dirt’s Scott Whitworth took his first victory on the difficult slopes of Sugar Mountain in the Sport Men’s race.

On the national circuit for the past two weeks, Daniel Doub and Charlie Pendry have been working hard and getting solid finishes. Daniel Doub took a hard-earned 36th in the XC in Idaho where despite the beautiful scenery the course is brutal and incredibly dusty. He was a consistent 34th in the short track which featured a difficult course that left little room for passing.
On the national circuit for the past two weeks, Daniel Doub and Charlie Pendry have been working hard and getting solid finishes. Daniel Doub took a hard-earned 36th in the XC in Idaho where despite the beautiful scenery the course is brutal and incredibly dusty. He was a consistent 34th in the short track which featured a difficult course that left little room for passing.At Snowmass Village, the seventh stop of the National Mountain Bike Series, Charlie Pendry rode a solid XC to a 28th place finish. The course was brutal, starting at nearly 9000 feet and featuring a climb of nearly 2000 feet of gain in altitude. The next day Pendry finished a career best in the Short Track, bringing it home in 22nd.