Exeter native and 2008 Olympian Adam Craig used a dominant performance to earn his second straight pro men’s cross country title at the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships on Saturday at the Mount Snow Resort at West Dover, Vt.

Competing over four laps of a five-mile circuit for a total of 20 miles, Craig took the lead from the gun and held off the strong 58-rider men’s pro field to win the title in 1 hour, 43 minutes, 39 seconds.

Craig took the lead on the initial climb to the summit of Mount Snow, and then used his descending skills to open up a lead of more than a minute by the end of the first lap on his closest competition, including the top-rated American in the World Cup standings and fellow Olympian Todd Wells of Durango, Colo., and last year’s national championship silver-medalist Jeremiah Bishop of Harrisonburg, Va..

Craig continued to ride strong over the final four laps – including a strong third lap when he bested the second-fastest rider for that lap by more than a minute – and finished 1:38 ahead of silver medalist Ryan Trebon of Bend, Ore., and more than two minutes in front of a surging Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski of Boulder, Colo., who finished third. Craig’s Giant Mountain Bike Team teammate Carl Decker of Bend, Ore., and fifth-place Sam Schultz of Colorado Springs, Colo., rounded out the podium finishers.

“This one is better than last year,” said the 26-year-old Craig, a Dexter Regional High School graduate. “It’s always hard when you have a target on your back. This race was good prep as it offers some good power work riding up steep hills like we’re going to have to do in Beijing.”

Craig has a history of strong performances in national championship races. Just missing a national title with a second-place finish in the first single-day national championship in 2004, Craig followed up that performance with a third-place effort in 2005 and a fifth-place finish in 2006 before taking his first national title last season on the Mount Snow course where he first raced successfully as a teenager a decade ago.

Another defending champion and 2008 Olympian, Mary McConneloug of Chilmark, Mass., won the women’s national championship, edging fellow Olympian Georgia Gould of Fort Collins, Colo., by less than a wheel.

The national championships concluded Sunday, when Craig was unable to successfully defend his 2007 national short-track championship, placing fifth in the race won by Jeremiah Bishop of Harrisonburg, Va.

But he did add to his championship resume later in the day by winning the national pro men’s Super D – a combination of downhill and cross country – for the fifth consecutive year.

Craig clocked a winning time of 7:09 to win the title ahead of Ross Schnell of Grand Junction, Colo., by six seconds.

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