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MONT-SAINTE-ANNE, Quebec – Adam Craig’s learning curve on mountain biking’s premier circuit seems to be as accelerated as the turning wheels on the tools of his trade.
The 23-year-old Corinth resident now has three top-10 finishes in his last six races on the International Cycling Union’s World Cup cross country tour after a career-best fourth-place ride Saturday at this resort 25 miles northeast of Quebec City.
“Today was a good day,” said Craig after completing an exhausting six laps around a 5.4-kilometer loop of mud, roots, rocks, and wooden bridges on a hot day that produced plenty of attrition among the 83 riders who started the fifth event in this year’s eight-race World Cup tour.
“I’m pretty happy with how things are going.”
Craig’s second straight top-10 at Mont-Sainte-Anne – he placed ninth in 2004 – also advanced him from 17th to ninth place among the 176 riders who have accumulated World Cup points this year.
The rapid rise is not being lost on his competitors.
“It’s impressive,” said Geoff Kabush, a biking veteran from Victoria, British Columbia, who is the reigning Canadian champion and a former Olympian. “Like everybody else, he’s had his problems, but he doesn’t get discouraged and keeps on working.
“He went back to Europe this year and has done well. It’s really paying off for him to have high expectations for himself and big goals, and not be satisfied just racing in North America.”
Kabush actually passed Craig late in the race to finish third in his home country behind Europeans Christoph Sauser and Fredrik Kessiakoff.
This was a field that featured a number of Olympians, a hope Craig had for himself last year before Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Todd Wells were selected to represent the United States in the Summer Games in Athens.
Horgan-Kobelski placed 21st at Mont-Sainte-Anne, while Wells was 35th.
“Adam was really frustrated with the Olympic selection process last year, but he doesn’t dwell on it, he just moves on and keeps a positive attitude,” said Kabush. “That’s what you need because you’re going to have a lot of problems mountain biking, whether it’s being sick or injured or having mechanical issues. You just have to forget about the problems and move on, and he’s doing that. He’s got a bright future.”
Sauser, the current World Cup points leader, earned his second straight tour victory. The 29-year-old Swiss rider teamed with 25-year-old Fredrik Kessiakoff of Sweden to pull away from the field early in the race, then separated himself from Kessiakoff to post the winning time of 1 hour, 57 minutes, 28 seconds.
Kessiakoff was 18 seconds back, while Kabush (1:58:44) and Craig (1:59:14) were next.
“There’s no goal, there never is,” said the 23-year-old Craig, who leaves for Santa Caterina, Brazil on Wednesday for next Sunday’s World Cup stop. “I’m happy with the finish, for sure. It’s good to race well here and good to feel strong. It would have been nice to feel a little stronger, but that’s all right.”
Craig entered the race coming off an eighth-place finish at Willingen, Germany, on June 4, and used his familiarity with the course – he has raced at Mont-Sainte-Anne for a decade – to exceed his previous best World Cup effort, a fifth in the 2004 season finale at Livigno, Italy.
Craig started 10th Saturday, but the Giant Bicycles rider dropped back briefly after getting stuck in traffic immediately after the mass start.
He entered the first turn of the opening lap in 16th place, but soon began to pick his way through the field. By the end of the first lap he was third, just behind Sauser and Kessiakoff.
“I was stuck behind Roel [Paulissen of Belgium] for a little bit,” Craig said. “He wasn’t really holding me up, but he wasn’t really hooking me up, either. I would show him a wheel, and he’d keep the pressure on and wouldn’t let me by, so that’s where the gap with Sauser and Kessiakoff came from.
“It just stayed that way, and those guys turned it on enough at the end to make it clear that I was where I was going to be anyway.”
While the two Europeans rode together, Craig was left to ride solo. He trailed the leaders by 11 seconds after the second lap and 16 seconds at the midpoint of the race. Kabush finally caught Craig as the pair crossed the start-finish line to complete the fourth lap 44 seconds behind Sauser, then passed him on the next uphill grade.
“I was keeping an eye out, but you focus forward when you’re racing, so you don’t really think about who’s coming behind you, or at least you try not to,” said Craig. “You have to be aware of it, but when you’re racing as fast as you can, it’s not like you can say to yourself, ‘Oh, there’s someone behind me, I better go faster.’ You’re already doing all that you can.”
“I was just riding my own race,” Kabush added. “I knew Adam was definitely pushing the pace on the first couple of laps. I knew if I ran my own race, I’d be going faster the last couple of laps, and it paid off.”
Craig cruised in with a comfortable podium [top-five] finish, 31 seconds ahead of fifth-place Liam Killeen of England.
“[Sauser and Kessiakoff] kept the pressure on for sure,” said Craig. “I figured I’d just keep it steady. I wasn’t going to attack to get to them because it was so hot and so hard out there.
“I was just riding my own race today, trying to be steady. That’s as fast as I can go, so I’m happy with it.”
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