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Log inExeter native ready to roll
Exeter native ready to roll
by Outspoken on Fri Aug 08, 2008 5:57 am
Exeter native ready to roll
By Ernie Clark
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
Adam Craig’s relationship with travel and terrain transcends his current occupation as an Olympic mountain biker.
Life in rural Maine draws most kids to explore the great outdoors early in life, and the 26-year-old Exeter native was no exception.
"Even when he was little, he’d jump off the deck and slide down to the frog pond and onto the stream nearby," said Craig’s mother, Patricia Craig.
Such spontaneous flirtations with speed soon were followed by more sophisticated means of transit, such as driving his dad’s jitterbug in the woods — a skill acquired at age 10.
Later, Craig discovered downhill ski racing and through that sport gained an introduction to the mountains that eventually fueled a passion for maneuvering around roots, rocks and other obstacles as fast as possible on a bicycle.
Today, few on the globe are faster on a mountain bike than the 5-foot-10, 165-pound Craig, who is one of two Americans who will compete in the men’s cross-country mountain bike race at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
"Adam has great bike-handling ability," said Carl Decker, one of Craig’s colleagues on the Giant Mountain Bike Team and a fellow resident of Bend, Ore. "He’s a really gifted rider, especially on descents. He has a unique understanding of how fast he can go downhill without riding too fast and crashing very often.
"He’s also really strong. He’s not a huge guy, but he breaks drivetrain components that nobody else breaks.
"Plus his cardiovascular is strong. He’s the complete package."
It’s that package — along with some strong recent efforts that include winning his second straight national championship last month — that leaves the 1999 graduate of Dexter Regional High School in an optimistic frame of mind heading into the biggest two hours of his competitive life on Aug. 23.
"This is the first year I’ve ridden in the elite group from the start at a few of the World Cup races," he said. "Before this year my good races have always been come-from-behind efforts. To be riding at the front in races now shows me that if I’m strong and fit and fresh as I usually am, somehow at the end of August I should be right there."
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=168134&zoneid=500
(Photos By Bangor Daily News/John Clarke Russ)
By Ernie Clark
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
Adam Craig’s relationship with travel and terrain transcends his current occupation as an Olympic mountain biker.
Life in rural Maine draws most kids to explore the great outdoors early in life, and the 26-year-old Exeter native was no exception.
"Even when he was little, he’d jump off the deck and slide down to the frog pond and onto the stream nearby," said Craig’s mother, Patricia Craig.
Such spontaneous flirtations with speed soon were followed by more sophisticated means of transit, such as driving his dad’s jitterbug in the woods — a skill acquired at age 10.
Later, Craig discovered downhill ski racing and through that sport gained an introduction to the mountains that eventually fueled a passion for maneuvering around roots, rocks and other obstacles as fast as possible on a bicycle.
Today, few on the globe are faster on a mountain bike than the 5-foot-10, 165-pound Craig, who is one of two Americans who will compete in the men’s cross-country mountain bike race at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
"Adam has great bike-handling ability," said Carl Decker, one of Craig’s colleagues on the Giant Mountain Bike Team and a fellow resident of Bend, Ore. "He’s a really gifted rider, especially on descents. He has a unique understanding of how fast he can go downhill without riding too fast and crashing very often.
"He’s also really strong. He’s not a huge guy, but he breaks drivetrain components that nobody else breaks.
"Plus his cardiovascular is strong. He’s the complete package."
It’s that package — along with some strong recent efforts that include winning his second straight national championship last month — that leaves the 1999 graduate of Dexter Regional High School in an optimistic frame of mind heading into the biggest two hours of his competitive life on Aug. 23.
"This is the first year I’ve ridden in the elite group from the start at a few of the World Cup races," he said. "Before this year my good races have always been come-from-behind efforts. To be riding at the front in races now shows me that if I’m strong and fit and fresh as I usually am, somehow at the end of August I should be right there."
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=168134&zoneid=500
(Photos By Bangor Daily News/John Clarke Russ)
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
