American cross-country Adam Craig claimed the biggest international victory of his young career July 13 at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 25-year-old sprung away from the field in the opening meters of the race, holding his advantage to the end.

For Craig, currently the top-ranked American in the UCI and World Cup standings, the win brought in more valuable UCI points needed for the United States’s push for the 2008 Olympic Games. The U.S. men are currently ranked sixth in the UCI rankings, and only the top-five countries will earn the maximum three spots for the games.

VeloNews caught up with Craig as he was traveling to the 2007 USA Cycling national mountain-bike championships in Mount Snow, Vermont, a quick five hours from his hometown of Bangor, Maine.

VeloNews: Sounds like this was your first taste of big, Olympics-style international competition. What were the highlights?

Adam Craig: Yeah, I’d never been to a games with a proper big athlete village which was pretty interesting. There are 5000 or so people in the [Pan Am] Games over the next two weeks and it was pretty interesting meeting a ton of really talented athletes, you know, having lunch with the Columbian national road team and talking with the Canadian volleyball squad. I didn’t make it to the opening ceremonies because our event was the first of the Games and it was the next morning, and it sounded like a bit of a long field trip to get there. The choice was pretty good because I guess they lost power in the stadium and 100,000 people were just sitting around.

VN: I know in the past your opinion of going to the Olympics has been relatively lukewarm. Did this experience change that at all?

AC: Yeah, it definitely gave me more insight. To see the size of this event and to participate in it and then to realize that the Olympics is way bigger makes it seem pretty sweet. Now, I’m sticking to my guns about wanting to go to the Olympics because it’s the pinnacle of sport, not because I want to fulfill the super-duper Olympic dream thing.

VN: What was the men’s field like there?

AC: It was small, and really similar to the Pan Am Champs field we’ve raced against in the past. Each country got two starting positions, so I think there were only 23 guys on the line. But for those guys, especially the Brazilians, they brought their super-A game. It’s a pretty big deal down there.

VN: I noticed you were the only U.S. men’s racer. Todd Wells, Jeremiah Bishop and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski all declined.

AC: Yeah and I was pretty chapped that the only post-race questions I got asked in the press conference was why my teammates chose to disrespect the event by not coming, and what I had to say about it.

VN: And what do you have to say about it?

AC: My job as a pro mountain-bike racer is to go and race my mountain bike. That we couldn’t talk two people into going down there, well, I think that’s pretty pathetic. I mean, I’d sure liked to have stayed at home and trained for Mount Snow, but to each his own. But I think some people could be pretty bummed if we miss getting three spots [for the Olympics] by 50 points or something.

VN: Did the trip set you back at all for the national championships?

AC: Well this year has all blended together and at the beginning of the year I told myself I’d be really fired up to race at Mount Snow, I’ve been fired up to race there since my first days as a junior. This is where I got my start and I’ve always raced well here. But I haven’t thought about it too much this year because of all the travel. I’m definitely not 100 percent with my fitness right now. I’m going to be mighty unimpressed if those lazy folks beat me, which they might do, because they were smart and stayed at home.

Spitz, Hermida win Euro Champs
German Sabine Spitz (Ghost International) and Spaniard Juan Antonio Hermida (Multivan-Merida) took the 2007 European mountain-bike championships cross-country race, held July 15 in Cappadocia, Turkey.

Hermida, winner of the first World Cup race of 2007, attacked the lead group of men containing World Cup champion Julien Absalon (Orbea), Fredrik Kessiakoff (Cannondale-Vredestein) and Christoph Sauser (Specialized). The Spaniard held a 1:26 advantage over Absalon to take his first European championship as an elite.

Spitz used a fast tempo to chase down surging World Cup leader Irinia Kalentyeva (Ergon-Topeak) on the final of three laps to take the win.

Czech rider Katerina Nash of the American-based Luna women’s mountain-bike team rode alongside Kalentyeva until the finishing kilometers, and eventually finished third. It was a career-best finish for Nash, who lives in Truckee, California.

Kintner set to compete at BMX world championships
American Jill Kintner (GT), the reigning World Cup, U.S. and world champion for four cross, will compete at the 2007 UCI world championships for BMX racing, held in Victoria, British Columbia on July 27-29.

“All I expect is to do the best I can with the time I have,” Kintner wrote on her website, www.jillkintner.com.

A former BMX world champion, Kintner began dominating the gated-racing world of mountain-bike racing in 2005, taking the World Cup and world titles.

Kintner repeated that feat in 2006 in the face of dwindling numbers in women’s gated-racing. The 25-year-old Seattle native is on the fast-track to representing the United States at the first-ever Olympic BMX competition in 2008.

Dahle-Flesjå returns to training
Reigning Olympic, world and World Cup champion Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjå of Norway has returned to training after missing nearly two months of the 2007 to a stomach virus. The Norwegian dropped out of the World Cup competition after the June 9 race in Offenburg, Germany and retreated to recover at her home in Stavanger, Norway.

Flesjå said she will no return to Italy for a training trip, and will announce her future racing ambitions within the next two weeks.