MARIBOR, Slovenia – Adam Craig of Corinth and Bend, Ore., was the top North American finisher last weekend during the final International Cycling Union World Cup men’s cross country mountain bike race of the season.

The 26-year-old rider for Giant Bicycles shook off a slow start to the race to finish 12th overall among 117 finishers.

“I finally got going halfway through the race,” Craig told cyclingnews.com. “Once it opened up I could pass and catch riders on the tricky bits. I haven’t been feeling super tip-top, so I’ll take this result.”

Fredrik Kessiakoff, coming off a fourth-place finish at the world championships held in Fort William, Scotland, a week earlier, became the first Swede to win a World Cup event. Christoph Sauser of Switzerland was more than a minute behind Kessiakoff in second place, with Manuel Fumic of Germany third.

Julien Absalon of France, the reigning four-time world champion and the 2004 Olympic champion, finished 18th in the race but won the seasonlong World Cup title.

Craig was the top North American in the final World Cup point standings, placing 15th overall, three spots ahead of Canadian veteran Geoff Kabush.

Craig and the rest of the world’s elite cross country mountain bikers will stage their next major competition on Sept. 29 in the Pre-Olympic Mountain Bike Championship to be held in Beijing. The race will be held on the course that was built to stage the event in the 2008 Summer Olympics.