James Hibbard

Hibbard is the Northern California/Nevada State Track Cycling Champion at the junior and elite levels in both sprint and endurance events. He is a nineteen-time medalist at the United States National Track Cycling Championships. As a member of the United States men's national cycling team, he was a bronze medalist at Trinidad and Tobago's Southern Games. Although a member of several Union Cycliste Internationale professional road cycling teams, Hibbard competed primarily as a track cyclist and was the 2003 Olympic Club Cycling Team Hans Ohrt Rider of the Year.

Coached by 1984 Olympic medalist Leonard Nitz for the majority of his career, Hibbard has been vocal in his support of drug-free sports. In July 2002, he was profiled by Elliott Almond of the San Jose Mercury News, and in several interviews, was critical of what he described as rampant doping in cycling. His correspondence with Irish Tour de France rider and cycling journalist Paul Kimmage about the problem of performance-enhancing drugs in professional cycling appeared in the preface to the 2007 edition of Kimmage's book Rough Ride.[2]

Hibbard's memoir, "The Art of Cycling: Philosophy, Meaning, and a Life on Two Wheels", was published by Quercus Books in the United Kingdom and Simon & Schuster in North America. The memoir was shortlisted for the 2022 British Sports Book Awards in the cycling category.[3] He has been supported by PEN America and selected by Tin House for their Winter Workshop.

James studied philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz and under the Heidegger scholar and translator William McNeill at DePaul University.

Per several interviews, as of 2023 Hibbard currently resides in Morgan Hill, California.[4]

• James Hibbard at Cycling Archives