Bobby & Jens: USA Cycling Head of Athletics Jim Miller
The cycling coach discusses his standout career and Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics.
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Jim Miller is one of the best, most popular, and most successful coaches in the world of cycling. In 17 years with USA Cycling, he has helped the United States win 14 Olympic medals, including a silver for co-host Bobby Julich at the Athens Games. But despite that clear track record, he says he never feels overly successful as a coach. “It even catches me off guard,” he says, when he stops to think about all he and his athletes have accomplished.
Before he was helping the world’s premier athletes reach their pinnacle, he was a bike racer from Wyoming studying exercise physiology. He fell into coaching, and as it turns out he was pretty good at it. As his athletes began winning, including national championships, more opportunities opened up, leading to his gig with the national team.
Now, several Olympics later and just weeks out from the Tokyo Games, Jim provides a window inside the selection process for Team USA and gives his analysis of the athletes heading to Tokyo, including Chloé Dygert, Lawson Cradock, Brandon McNulty and Amber Neben. And later he talks about what USA Cycling is doing to support the next generation of racers.
Jim also provides insight into what sets winners apart from other elite athletes, and what he’s looking for when he takes on coaching a new athlete.
And because we’re right in the middle of the Tour de France, co-hosts Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt discuss the race, which Jens says has been “by far the most demanding, brutal, meanest start” he has seen in his quarter century of being involved with the grand tour.