Saugerties girl, 7, eyes world BMX crown
Seven-year-old Jenna Miller set to compete in prestigious event in South Carolina in July
Seven-year-old BMX standout Jenna Miller, of Saugerties, will be one of more than 3,300 riders from all over the world who will descend on Rock Hill, South Carolina to race in UCI BMX World Championships July 25-29.
Miller is ranked second in New York and third in the Northeast Region in her class.
On a recent sweltering afternoon, Jenna was at the Kingston Point BMX park with her parents, Joe and Kelly Miller, where she got her start and still races and trains. As she took a lap around the track, Joe explained his daughter’s training routine.
He said Jenna starts each morning on her “trainer,” which is capable of coupling her bike with a resistance trainer.
She races multiple nights a week, including racing in New Paltz on Tuesday and Friday and in Kingston on Wednesday. Oftentimes they don’t get home until 8:30 p.m.
On race day, Jenna has a lot on her mind, making sure to get a good start when the gate comes down, timing herself and keeping track of the other racers, who are known on occasion to resort to contact to gain the upper edge, Joe said.
“It’s a semi-contact sport,” he noted.
But at the same time, Joe added a family atmosphere develops off the track. He recalled a time when they had a bad tire and other families at the event came together to get him a tire lever and a tube.
“We changed it out, and we were ready to go in about 10 minutes,” Joe said.
During a race, Jenna competes against eight riders.
“In the typical race, there are qualifying rounds, then the main event,” Joe said, adding riders who finish in the top half of the qualifiers move on to the main event which awards points and trophies.
Depending on the number of kids in her age group, Jenna may face older or younger kids. Even when she faces younger competitors, Joe said he never wants to see Jenna back off.
“Sometimes she gets a little complacent when she’s the only seven-year-old on the track with two six-yearolds,” Joe said.
That’s the only time Joe said he pressures her.
“If Jenna tries her best, tries her absolute hardest, and gets last I’m okay,” he said. “They don’t get participation trophies.”
As the world championship appraoches, Jenna has no time for rest, just more training,.
The worlds, sanctioned by Union Cycliste Internationale — the same sanctioning body that puts on the Tour de France — are taking place in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years.
“It’s as big as the Olympics, Joe said. “Last year they were held in Colombia. There are 3,300 riders from 40 countries competing — including from Australia, Japan and Colombia.”
Jenna already has experience with the Rock Hill track as she competed there during a qualifying round in March. As for getting her ready for the intense Southern heat and humidity, Joe said Jenna’s spending a lot of time outside.
“Shes been outside all day,” he said. “She’s getting ready to work up a sweat.”
She got a real feel for the track, Joe added.
Jenna placed third out of 15 riders on her team made up girls ages 5-7, earning a spot on the team. Riders are grouped by age, through adult age — some of whom ride professionally.
The Millers recently returned form the East Coast Nationals in Baltimore, one of several national rounds each year that also include Rock Hill; Phoenix, Arizona; Redmond, Washington and Austin, Texas.
As Jenna finished a lap, Joe recalled how she got started riding.
He said she was riding a bike with training wheels at her grandparents house a couple of years ago in the fall, but the training wheels were getting hung up in the gravel driveway. So he took them off, and within a halfhour, she’d figured out how to ride on two wheels.
Later on, they got her a trial membership at the BMX course and she took off on a long straight.
“She just didn’t have enough gas make it up one of the jumps she fell down,” Joe said.
Joe heard her cry and asked her if she was OK.
“She goes ‘not alright,’” he said.
So Joe said he asked her if she wanted to go home. Then he was surprised what she said next.
“She told me ‘no I want to do it again,’” Joe recalled.
Jenna is following in her mother’s footsteps as Kelly did some BMX and motocross.
Even as Jenna’s moved up the ladder to the expert level, she’s still suffered a few crashes, like a recent one that landed her in a soft cast, Kelly said.
But that’s done little to slow her down, Jenna’s mom noted.
“The next day we were traveling to a very important race, the Gold cup qualifiers,” Kelly added.
On another occasion, Jenna took a hard fall and landed on her face. Despite swelling so bad she could barely talk, she rode in her next event, Kelly said.
Joe said Jenna hopes to turn pro someday, noting she’s eligible to turn pro when she’s 17 or 18.
Once Jenna turns pro, the companies provide bikes and gear which can cost thousands of dollars.
Joe said Jenna has already had the chance to meet several pros like Australian Olympian Lauren Reynolds, who represented Australia in the 2012 games in London.
Joe added that Reynolds offered a class where she shared information about a number of important BMX skill sets that included getting the best starts and pumping over the bumps along the course.
She even remembered Jenna’s name, Joe said. “One of the biggest pro riders in history remembered Jenna.”
All along, Jenna has to find time to balance schoolwork, even with a schedule full of events every other week through October, Joe said.
In the winter months her focus shifts to spending three nights a week playing hockey at the Kiwanis Ice Arena in Saugerties, Kelly noted.
While school is in session, she often misses class on Fridays, but her teachers let her take tests early, Joe said. But she’s proven up to the challenge, pulling straight A’s, Joe added.
Enjoying a Klondike Bar from an ice cream truck that rolled through a nearby parking lot after practice, Jenna said she likes the trophies and working hard to get them.
“Nothing in life is easy and you have to work for it,” Jenna noted.