Mountain biking champ headed for Europe, California

ORONO – Adam Craig does not look the part of national mountain-biking champion. He stands nearly 6 feet tall and does not have an entourage or exhibit an ego.

He has come a long way from the 5-year-old who couldn’t pedal his first bike up his driveway because it was too steep. But he does not let anyone know it.

Look closer. The brand names betray success. Craig wears Oakley sunglasses, one of 10 pairs the manufacturer has given him; a Rock Shox hat; the USA cycling windbreaker; and a tan.

On two legs, Craig resembles nearly every other student at the University of Maine. But in the racing world Craig is anything but anonymous.

He won the United States Cycling Federation’s under-23 cyclo-cross – a winter version of mountain biking – division championship in Baltimore in December, earning a berth in the world championships.

The USA Cycling All-American finished eighth in the 2001 world championships in Zolder, Belgium, in January. Craig started 62nd, nearly 30 seconds behind the lead group, because the United States sent only 10 riders to the championships the previous year. After five laps, the No. 67-ranked mountain biker in the world kept pace and was 30 seconds behind the leaders. He later lost pace and finished eighth behind Thijs Verhagen of the Netherlands.

Craig’s only hint of pretense on a bright February morning are the silver designer sunglasses he put on after walking out of Memorial Union – because the snow and ice reflected the sunlight like a mirror. But the act of putting on the glasses was not to turn Superman into Clark Kent. He didn’t do it to hide from autograph seekers.

For Adam Craig, the unknown champion at the University of Maine, the act is functional.

“Like every other kid I played soccer and basketball and all that in high school, but I never really got into it,” the Exeter native said. “I come back to biking because it’s just about you, and it’s more anonymous.”

Craig’s road to cycling success began when he received a red bike with fixed pedals and no brakes for his fifth birthday.

“One of my dad’s friends came to my house and had this little red bike he gave me,” Craig said. “I rode it down the driveway, but I couldn’t ride it back up because it was too big of a hill. It was sweet.”

He began competitive racing as a seventh-grader, finishing seventh in a downhill race at Hermon Mountain. Craig has difficulty remembering the first race he won – subtly indicating that winning is secondary to competing.

“I don’t know – the first [race] I remember winning was a sport class race on Essex Street in Bangor. But I think I won some junior races before that,” he said.

According to those who have known Craig since he was beating adults – professionals and amateurs alike – to the bottom of Sunday River when he was only 16, his ego hasn’t grown any larger.

“Adam is a good kid, with a very small ego for someone who is so good,” said Tom Arsenault, who raced with a high school age Craig. “He’s done some really great things in a short span of time, especially in a sport so dominated by Europeans.”

After graduating from John Bapst Memorial High School in 2000, Craig spent 18 months in the resident athlete program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in what he calls the perfect scenario for developing world-class riders.

Days consisted of eating, riding, optional training sessions and wasting time. But the monotony of daily training and too much free time eventually wore on Craig.

He enrolled at the University of Maine for the 2001 fall semester. By design, he has classes only on Tuesday and Thursday so he can train and travel to competitions on Friday and Monday.

“There weren’t a whole lot of other things to do [at the training center],” he said. “The free time helped me to acknowledge that I needed to do something else. It’s good to have the brain turned on and be using your time productively. I came to school to expand my horizons and make a backup for myself in case I were to fall down the stairs and break my leg.”

He still trains as hard as before, in the Orono woods in the fall and on a track in his apartment in the winter. He says returning to the woods where he started has helped him reconnect with his riding roots and have fun again.

Craig has participated in 15 races as a student and has won several domestic races, including a January event in Vista, Calif.

His spring cyclo-cross schedule is packed. Two days after the Big Bear California Mountain Biking nationals this month, Craig will return to Europe for three international competitions in three weeks. His schedule includes World Cup races in Spain and Belgium, and a road race in Paris before he returns to the United States.

But for now, the wear and tear of school and training is something Craig relishes. He acknowledges that there are times when he would like to receive some recognition for his hard work and cease being the anonymous champion.

“It’s frustrating to see people in other sports who don’t really do a whole lot [of work] get all the coverage. In big training weeks I put in 30 to 35 hours. When you step back and think about it, I wish I was getting more coverage. But it’s America, and Americans like baseball and football,” Craig said, “and Europeans like cycling.”