Wilkesboro NC’s Charlie Pendry and his training partner, Winston Salem’s Daniel Corum (both Students at NC State) took their southern mountain bike flavor to Quebec Canada this past Sunday to compete at the World Cup Cross country race. In World Cups, they do short, 24 min laps and 15% of the field gets pulled every lap. Pendry raced his Inland Construction colors proud to complete 4 of 6 laps against the best mountain bikers in the world. Daniel, doing his first world Cup experience, got in 2 of 6 laps.

Pendry and Corum now take this experience back to the NORBA circuit in 2 weeks at the Deer Valley National race.

The rest of the mortal Inland Construction team, raced the NC State Championship road and mountain bike races in hometown Raleigh, NC.

Team Manager, Bo Glenn continued his comeback from last year’s back injury to capture the sliver medal in the master’s cross country event.

The next day, Charlie Storm placed 5th in the Masters road criterium and teammate Kevin Gordon, placed 7th.

Storm rode for a good, hard workout in the pouring rain in the Pro 1-2 criterium, sitting on the front of the field for most of the race and placing 6th.

Round #2 of the NORBA NMBS came south for what would be Inland Construction-BTD’s “home course” and featured what could be described as true east coast mountain biking. Featuring a 1,200-foot climb in each 6.6-mile lap that finished on the Super-D downhill with rocky, rooty, and slick singletrack. The course shaped up to be a challenge, even for the countries top pro riders.

Inlands semi-pro rider and team sponsor, Rob Moran, was 26th in the very fast and difficult lead off race on Friday. After a conservative start, Moran moved up 20 places in laps 2 and 3 on the steeps of Sugar Mountain. Rob Moran credited the climbing efficiency of his Shimano/Magura equipped Fuji Team Issue and light rolling DT Swiss wheels. Rob was in the top 20 and looked to have the momentum to close in on the top 10. However, a hard over-the-bars crash at the end of lap 3 and the nearly 5000 vertical feet of climbing over 27 miles took its toll in his 4th and final lap.

On Saturday Inlands Pro team of Daniel Corum, Charlie Pendry, and Charlie Storm took to the course. A long and difficult race eliminated many racers including NORBA Veteran, Storm. Daniel Corum had a tough day, but hung tough to finish the race. Pendry persevered and, despite losing a few places due to some mechanical issues caused by a run-in with the rocks on the descent, he rode home to a 21st placing. Junior Expert Matt Rotroff toughed it out and finished 25th despite dealing with two flat tires. Later in the day Inlands Mike Lockhart scored a solid seventh in the sport mens 25-29 race.

Sunday is short track day at the NMBS races. Charlie Pendry put in his best short track performance ever in front of his home crowd. On a very spectator and racer friendly course Pendry finished 17th after being caught behind a wreck at the start and chasing his way back to the second group. Pendrys short track tire choice was the new for 2006, Hutchinson Piranha. The Piranhas paid off with their low rolling resistance perfectly suited to the fast course. Inland Construction’s Matt Rotroff rode to a solid 12th in the Junior Expert short track.

Daniel Corum, Charlie Pendry, and Matt Rotroff will be looking forward to next weekend and the NMBS at Mount Snow, VT. The course there will be every bit as rugged and challenging as Sugars, and they will be ready to solidify the performance potential they demonstrated this weekend.

Raleigh, NC – The National Road Calendar series made a stop this year in downtown Raleigh. Riders were scheduled to do 50 laps of the one-mile, eight-corner course. Torrential thunderstorms moved in and officials cut the race to 35 laps. Inland Construction had 4 riders in the field, which included Pro Mountain bikers Charlie Pendry and Charlie Storm, Elite Cyclocrosser, John Degele, and in his first ever Pro race, Steve Sherman.

Riding in his first road event of 2006, Inland Construction’s Professional Mt biker, Charlie Pendry rode tough for 30 laps until being caught behind a crash took him off the back of the group at lap 30, at which point the filed of 100 was now down to about 35 riders. With the speed and rain taking it’s toll on the field, Charlie Storm, who finished third here last year placed 14th in the race which had 25 riders remaining on the lead lap at the finish.

Bump & Grind AMBC Cross Country

Birmingham, AL – In their final tune up before their NORBA National Series East Coast swing, Inland’s Charlie Pendry and Daniel Corum competed and the South’s highest purse Cross Country event at Oak Mountain State Park in Birmingham, AL. Charlie Pendry placed 4th and Daniel Corum placed 9th.

The next two weeks will take the Inland Construction Pro Mountain Bike Team of Rob Moran, Charlie Pendry, Daniel Corum, and Charlie Storm to Sugar Mountain, NC and Mount Snow, VT for the NORBA National Series’s only East Coast events in 2006.