GIANT MTB PRO ADAM CRAIG PREPS FOR HIS FIRST OLYMPICS

Bend, OR (July 9, 2008) - Adam Craig has a busy month leading up to his arrival in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Craig, who turns 27 a week before he races in China, only recently returned to his home in Bend, OR, after spending more than 2 months in Europe. He’s been competing in World Cup events in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Scotland and the World MTB Championships in Italy. His final event before coming home was an exhibition race down stone stairs and up narrow cobblestone streets in a downpour in Prague. “There are few surfaces slicker than stones worn by hundreds of years of foot traffic,” Adam wrote in his blog on Giant’s RideLife.net website. “Someone won, nobody died. Perfect. We all huddled in the VIP tent and imbibed some delicious Czech Pilsner while the rain pounded down.”

Adam has had only a few days to relax for “…river floating, socializing, and refreshing beverage consumption” since he got back to Bend. He wasn’t officially notified of his selection to the United States Olympic cycling team until shortly after his return to US soil.

Adam’s selection was nearly guaranteed. He’s the current US National Champion in the XC and the Super D; he placed 8th in the second World Cup race in Offenburg, Germany, and had 3 other top 20 finishes in other WC events. Still, his first “official” indication that he’d made the team came from a reporter a couple of days before the 4th of July.

“A reporter from Dover, Maine, Ernie Clark, called me at about ten in the morning,” said Craig, “just as [a friend] and I were starting to work on my SuperMotard Motorcycle. We chatted a bit; then more calls kept coming in. The Moto didn't get finished till about four in the afternoon.”

Anyone who knows Adam, or reads his diary on RideLife.net, knows he’s a fairly laid-back kind of guy. He takes most things—like competition—in stride, with a pragmatic, workman-like approach. Still this is his first shot at Olympic competition on the world’s biggest stage. Will that change his mind-set? “I'm trying to just keep my “even-keel-ness” going with this honor as well,” Adam says. “It's going to be pretty awesome to go over there though, being the biggest sporting event in the universe and all. To that end, so I don't freak out, I'm just treating it as another bike race.”

Adam has been racing on the Giant mountain bike team since 2003, and he’s been instrumental in the design of several Giant bicycles that he races—namely, the Anthem Advanced full-composition full-suspension mountain bike (on which he won the US National XC title) and the brand new XTC Advanced SL full-composite hardtail bicycle. Two members of the Giant MTB support staff will accompany Adam to help him and all the members of the US Olympic mountain bike team in the first leg of their journey to Beijing. “The US team will leave on August 11th and fly to the island of Jeju off the southern coast of South Korea,” reports Adam. “We'll stay there and train in the correct time zone and climate for a week, then head over to Beijing a few days before the race [on August 23rd]. Our Giant Team staff of Elke Brutsaert and Tom Neb have been selected to attend this pre-Olympic Camp to help out, so that'll be pretty sweet.”
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ADAM CRAIG PREPS FOR HIS FIRST OLYMPICS -2-

There’s been much discussion in the recent months by athletes and trainers who are concerned about Beijing’s air quality and how it might affect Olympic performances. Last September, Adam and a few other Olympic hopefuls rode a “test event” over the planned Beijing MTB race course. At the time, Adam blogged that after about 25 minutes of riding, “…I was unable to take more than ¼ of a breath, even that producing coughing, hacking, spitting up all sorts of gross stuff and feeling nauseous and kind of scared…it was unbelievable.”

About the prospect of competing in August in similar conditions, Adam says now, “The beauty of mountain bike racing is that every last person who starts any given race is faced with the same exact conditions. So, the fact that the course isn't especially stimulating is kind of irrelevant. We'll all ride fast and the fastest guy will win. It'd be sweet if it was in Vermont or Houffalize, but hey...” He continues, "As to the air, it was really impressively bad last September there. So we'll just hope it rains and cleans things up. Otherwise, we'll just ride a bit slower and hope to survive. Not ideal, but we're all in the same boat. “

In the next few weeks, before leaving for training camp in South Korea, Adam will compete in US races in New York and the National championships in Vermont. He’ll also race in World Cup events in Quebec which finish on August 4th. That leaves him precious few days to return to Bend, OR, before crossing the Pacific to begin his final Olympic training. Facing more competition, defending his US title, and collecting air miles faster than many flight attendants might stress many pro athletes. But Adam remains typically nonplussed by his schedule. “Other than that,” he says, “pretty chill.”

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