Craig awaits Olympic decision Exeter native 45th at elite Italian race

TRENTINO, Italy – Exeter native Adam Craig struggled to a 45th-place finish Sunday in the elite men’s cross country race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.

But the effort, which placed him second among American participants in the event, likely will be good enough to help him secure one of the two berths on the U.S. Olympic Mountain Bike Team, which will be announced soon by USA Cycling.

Christoph Sauser led a 1-2-3 finish by Swiss riders in the race, ending a four-year run as world champion by 2004 Olympic champion Julien Absalon of France. Floiran Vogel and Ralph Naef finished second and third, well behind Sauser.

Todd Wells was the top American finisher in 15th place, 8 minutes and 9 seconds behind Sauser.

Craig started fairly well, and was the leading American and 29th overall after the first of seven laps. Wells overtook Craig on the second lap, and Craig gradually fell back into the 30s amid the sweltering heat of the day, then dropped from 39th to 45th on the final lap to finish 16:06 behind Sauser.

Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski finished third among the American contingent, one lap back in 49th place, while Barry Wicks (56th), Michael Broderick (68th) and Sam Schultz (71th) were other American riders in the field.

Twenty riders who started the race dropped out before the finish, including Absalon, who raced among the top five early in the event before fading badly and dropping out on the sixth lap.

Craig has consistently been the second-fastest American this season in the International Cycling Union’s 2008 World Cup Mountain Bike races leading up to the world championships, and has been seen as a strong bet to join Wells on the Olympic team for the Beijing Games based on those performances.

With no top-three finishes by Americans at the world championships or in a World Cup this season, only Wells has met the automatic nomination criteria for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team as a result of collective performances throughout the season.

Wells earned that automatic berth as the athlete with the best cumulative placing in his best three 2008 World Cup events. Wells finished sixth at the World Cup in Vallnord, Andorra, on May 31 to complement an 11th-place effort in the season opener in Houffalize, Belgium, on April 20. He then finished 13th at the June 7 World Cup in Fort William, Scotland.

Wells’ sixth-place finish in Andorra was the best result by a men’s American mountain bike athlete in World Cup competition this season.