BEIJING -- Maine's Adam Craig suffered a poor start to the men's mountain bike cross country race Saturday afternoon at the Beijing Summer Olympics and finished 29th.

Craig, an Exeter native, was pulled off the course before he could begin his last lap because of the sport's "80-percent rule.''

Under that rule, a rider must complete a lap within 80 percent of the time that the leader finished the lap. If he doesn't, race officials predict that he could be lapped by the leaders, causing a logjam on the course, and they pull the rider to create an open course for the leaders.

Craig did not have a finishing time.

"You give what you have to give,'' said Craig, who had finished fourth and third in his last two World Cup races. "And I didn't have a whole lot to give today.''

It started immediately when his foot slipped off his pedal at the starting line, not just once, but several times.

By the time he got his foot secure on the pedal, he was in last place, despite starting in the second row.

"This was especially bad for me,'' said Craig. "Slip your pedal three times in a row and you're last, and everyone is sprinting while you're coasting at two miles an hour.

"That was very less than ideal but without that having happened, I didn't have a whole lot today anyway. I'm sure I could have been 10th to 15th.''

Craig is the last of Maine's seven athletes at the Summer Games to compete.