Giant Pro Wins All-Mountain World Championship; Team Mate Kelli Emmett Places Third!
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;setCaption(document.image_thumb); "Adam on the top step of the podium, claiming the overall win and both stages of the 2009 Downieville Classic. On the left of Adam is 3rd place winner Sid Taberlay; on the right is 2nd place winner Jason Moeschler, and 4th place finisher Chris Sheppard.")
;setCaption(document.image_extra_one_thumb); "Giant MTB Pro Kelli Emmett took third place in both point-to-point and Super D events, and claimed third overall at Downieville")
;setCaption(document.image_extra_two_thumb); "Giant MTB Pro Adam Craig on course to win the 2009 Downieville Classic.")
The Downieville Classic Mountain Bike Race is, without a doubt, the hardest All-Mountain contest anywhere. Two days of extremely challenging riding, in two different events—and this year Giant MTB Pro Adam Craig conquered both in record time!
Riding his team issue Trance X Maestro-suspension bicycle, Adam won the first stage on Saturday, July 11, rolling into the California Sierra foothill town of Downieville with a winning time of 1 hour, 52 minutes, and four seconds. That was 41 seconds faster than second place finisher Sid Taberlay (SHO-AIR team) and nearly five minutes faster than the course record, set in 2008 by Ross Schnell (Trek team) who finished 9th against Adam. Saturday’s stage one featured hundreds of riders enduring a punishing 29-mile point-to-point cross country race, including an 8-mile, 3000-foot climb up Packer Saddle.
“Sid and I had a good battle,” Adam told Velo News after the stage. “We started off pretty chill, riding tempo for the first couple miles, but we stepped it up as the climb got steeper.”
The next day, Adam proved why he’s the best mountain bike racer in the US. In stage two of the Downieville race, he set the second course record of the weekend. He completed a plunging 17-mile Super D style course in 43 minutes and 48 seconds. The track climbed more than 1000 feet, and plummeted more than 5300 feet on its way into Downieville, one hour north of Lake Tahoe.
This was Adam’s first time racing Downieville. Competitors began the second stage at one-minute intervals. Adam started 33rd and passed five racers on his way to the new record. “Everybody I caught up to was super cool and let me pass right away,” Adam said. “Surprisingly, I had a pretty clean track all the way down.”
Adam’s team mate, Kelli Emmett, also rode smart races and appeared on the podium in the women’s events at Downieville. On both stages, the Giant pro rider placed third, and wound up taking third overall.
Both Kelli and Adam head to Colorado for the US National Championships next weekend.
More details and photos of the 2009 Downieville Classic can be found at:
http://www.velonews.com/article/95006/giant-s-adam-craig-wins-stage-1-at-the-downieville-classic