MONT-SAINTE-ANNE, Quebec – Adam Craig remembers vividly his first time as a competitive racer on this mountain some 25 miles northeast of Quebec City.

“It was a cadet downhill race in 1995, part of the World Cup weekend that year,” he said. “I was 14 and I got third place. I just remember I got smoked by two Canadian guys.”

Dozens of Canadian cadet racers and other mountain bikers were back at Mont-Sainte-Anne on Friday competing in the Quebec Cup – part of a two-week celebration of the sport known as Velirium 2005.

Craig, a 23-year-old Exeter native who now splits his time between Corinth and Bend, Ore., is back, too, but this time as part of the main event.

The Dexter Regional High School product and 124 rival elite mountain bikers from around the world are making their annual stop in Canada, the fifth leg of the International Cycling Union’s 2005 World Cup circuit.

For Craig, who spent seven weeks in Europe this spring competing in the first four races of the eight-stage tour, Mont-Sainte-Anne represents a home game.

“I’ve raced here a lot of times, this is my home World Cup race,” said Craig, who is seeded to start 10th in the field for Saturday afternoon’s race. “It’s more because of just being here rather than being in Europe. I’ve always raced well here and had a good time.”

Craig is optimistic about the weekend, in part because he finished ninth overall – and as the top American – at the same event last year, his first season competing at the top level of mountain bike racing worldwide.

“This course is perfect for me,” said Craig, a former under-23 national champion before he moved to the World Cup circuit in 2004. “It has short, steep climbs, which is the kind of climbing I grew up riding around Bangor. Then it has super rooty trails, just all technical, muddy, rooty and rocky. They change the course a little every year, but it’s gotten really worn in, so it has good lines and a good flow, but it’s easy to ride on fast if you’re used to it.”

The riders will aim to complete seven laps of a course slightly longer than 5 kilometers, which should take approximately two hours. The average speed for the race, Craig said, should be 12 to 13 miles per hour. It is a slower pace than many World Cup races, which is a testament to the demands of the trail.

“This is probably the most technically demanding course on the World Cup circuit,” Craig said. “The two big climbs are big and both into the sun. They’re hard. Other than the climbs, it’s just all technical biking and descents.

“But the best that I’m able to race comes out on a course like this because these are the kind of trails I’m used to riding.”

In preparation for Saturday’s run, Craig went out for some practice laps late Friday afternoon on his $4,000 custom Giant bicycle, mostly to reacquaint himself with the idiosyncrasies of the course.

“Generally I like to visualize at least each section of the course, and where I generally am going to be and what I am going to try to do on each section,” he said. “On the second downhill, for instance, I know I want to swing wide around the first tree and then snake through to the left lane and then come back across. You just need to know where you want to go all along the course.

“The challenge is keeping your focus for the entire two hours so every tiny error doesn’t multiply into you being 10 minutes slower than you should be.”

There’s also time spent during the final hours before the race checking the composite-frame bike, though typically that doesn’t require much work by Craig for a couple of reasons. First, the bikes generally don’t require significant repair from week to week. Second, unlike during his first year on the circuit, Craig and his teammates, including fellow American Carl Decker, have a traveling support staff provided by sponsors Giant Bicycles and Michelin that includes two mechanics.

“For the seven weeks I was in Europe we probably changed the brake pads once and put a new chain on twice,” he said. “Unless something gets broken or you have a race where the weather is super terrible – then you replace the shift cables, brake pads and chain all in one weekend – generally it’s just one thing you might change on a weekend. The main parts wear out, the other parts stay the same.

“But before the race I’ll put tires on and help out the mechanics some. The mechanics do most of the work, but it lets us be involved a little bit, and not feel like we’re totally being taken care of all the time.”

The Mont-Sainte-Anne race is the first of three World Cup events in as many weeks. After leaving Quebec, Craig heads for Brazil for a July 2 race, followed by another event at the Angel Fire Resort in New Mexico the following weekend.

Such is the life of a world-class mountain biker, elite competition combined with extensive travel that places an emphasis on time management, particularly when it comes to training.

“It’s not too bad, as long as your luggage shows up,” he said. “You have race day, and then you travel the next day, which is kind of a forced rest day. Then you take it easy for another day and then you’ve got a couple of days to get some training in to get ready for the next race.

“As long as you’re going from Point A to Point B it’s not that much of a challenge to at least keep your fitness. It’s tough to build much fitness, but as long as you know the program and know what you have to do and how much time you have to do it, you can do it.”

That training regimen has served Craig well through the midpoint of this year’s World Cup schedule. One of the younger riders on the circuit, Craig currently is ranked 17th overall and tops among American riders in the point standings.

“I came into this season with no real goals or expectations,” said Craig, who contended for a spot on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team but did not land one of the two men’s berths. “It’s a post-Olympic year, so I’m just casually racing and learning and having a good time. I’m on the four-year plan for Beijing [site of the 2008 Summer Games], so I’m super happy with the way things are going.

“I just went to Europe to get some experience and race in a fairly casual atmosphere where nothing was hanging on it, and good things came out of it because when you’re relaxed and enjoying yourself you end up racing well.”

Craig, who competes on the North American Off-Road Biking Association (NORBA) circuit when not riding World Cup races, hopes to maintain his current momentum in front of a large crowd that will include several relatives and mountain biking comrades from the Bangor area.

“This place always has a good crowd,” he said. “This is their big race in Quebec, and they’ve had the World Cup here since ’91, so it has a good mountain biking area.

“I’m stoked. This is as close to home as I get.”