Adam Craig begins his second season at the highest level of world-class mountain biking this weekend, competing in the International Cycling Union’s opening World Cup cross country race in Spa, Belgium.

The Corinth resident, who at 23 is one of the youngest of the more than 100 elite riders from around the globe who compete in the eight-stop UCI tour throughout Europe and North and South America, is taking a low-key approach to the new season.

“My stock answer for this year is I have no goals for this year,” said Craig, who left his winter training base in Bend, Ore., on Tuesday. “I’m just going to race through the season and focus on a full World Cup schedule and a full NORBA [National Off-Road Biking Association] schedule. I’ll just run wherever I run, and take it as it comes.”

Craig will benefit from increased sponsor support from Giant Bicycles, which has established a traveling support team that will follow Craig and several European riders the company sponsors to each World Cup stop.

A year ago, Craig was responsible for his own accommodations, travel and other necessities of life as a touring rider. This year, his support team will handle those logistics.

“Last year I pretty much did it all myself,” said Craig. “I’d stay with friends and work out ways to get around to the Cup events. It was fine, but I was very excited when this came together for this year.

“It will let me step to the next level and focus on riding instead of dealing with some of the other things.”

This year’s UCI tour will include two North American stops, at Mont Ste. Anne, Quebec, on June 25-26 and in Angel Fire Resort in New Mexico on July 9-10. Those events come during a busy stretch for Craig and his rivals, who also will race at Santa Catarina, Brazil, on July 2-3.

“I’ve raced well in Quebec, and it will be nice to have one in the States this year,” said Craig. “The only down side is the race in New Mexico is the weekend right after we race in Brazil. I know all the guys from the States were hoping to take advantage of racing at home, but since we’ll all be coming from Brazil we’ll all be on the same plane.”

The 5-foot-11, 165-pound Craig joined the UCI World Cup ranks full time last year after dominating national junior competition, winning three U23 national mountain biking champions and two national cyclocross titles.

The 2004 season got off to a sluggish start, largely the result of off-season injuries that slowed his pre-tour training.

That helped to dash his hopes of landing a berth on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team, but he rebounded midway through the season and finished ninth at the World Cup stop in Mont St. Anne.

He went on to place 24th at the UCI World Championships at Les Gets, France, and earn three top-three finishes at the inaugural U.S. Mountain Biking Championships at Mammoth Mountain in California. There he won the Super D (downhill) while placing second in the men’s pro cross country race and third in the pro short track race.

But Craig’s 2004 highlight reel was topped by his final World Cup race, a fifth-place finish at Livigno, Italy – site of this year’s UCI world championships from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4. That finish was the best-ever by any current U.S. cross country rider, as well as the best by any American in a World Cup cross country race since 1994.

“Last year was a great year,” said Craig, “especially with the way it finished off with a good result in the World Cup final and some strong finishes toward the end of the year. It definitely ended on a positive note.”

Craig has used that momentum to get off to a quick start in 2005. He won the opening cross country race of the NORBA schedule at Tapatio Springs Resort in Boerne, Texas, and is coming off a solid seventh-place finish among a world-class field at the Sea Otter Classic last weekend in Monterey, Calif.

While in California, Craig also viewed the final product of his screen debut, as he and seven other Americans who competed for U.S. Olympic Team berths last year were the subjects of “Off Road to Athens,” a feature-length documentary that premiered at the Golden State Theater in Monterey.

The film, produced by veteran adventure filmmakers Ken Bell and Jason Berry, chronicles the path taken by the four men and four women who competed for the three available positions on the U.S. team through a series of UCI races around the globe.

“It’s a great film, really well done,” said Craig, who provided what he described as some of the film’s “comic relief.” “It does a good job of getting the point across about the process of trying to make the Olympic team. It treated everyone fairly equal.”

Craig hopes to be part of a similar film in 2008, only this time as one of the survivors who earn a trip to the next Summer Games in Beijing, China.

For now, there’s the more standard life of a professional mountain biker.

“The last couple of years I set some goals for myself and they didn’t always work out, so I’m not going to worry about goals right now,” said Craig. “I’m on a four-year plan for the next Olympics, so I’m not overly concerned about that right now.

“I’ll just run my races, and take it as it comes.”