Gila monsters: Annual cycling event brings the sport's amateur and professional best to Silver City

The Tour of the Gila has a reputation that reaches well beyond state lines.

Cynthia Taylor was living and racing professionally in Australia a few years back, but when a friend heard mention of her New Mexican roots, there was only one obvious recommendation to make to a like-minded cycling aficionado.

“I was talking about how my family is from New Mexico and I have a friend there … he’s now a retired professional racer. He was like, ‘Oh man, I remember that race. It was so beautiful. The mountains kicked my butt, but it was the best thing I ever did ... if you are visiting your family when the Gila happens, you have to do it,’ ” Taylor recalls. “I’m here, and the stars aligned.”

Gila monsters: Annual cycling event brings the sport's amateur and professional best to Silver City

Taylor, who is in Albuquerque to get her master’s degree in biomedical engineering at the University of New Mexico, no longer races at the professional level. However, with the Gila, even the amateur version is notoriously challenging.

“The Gila is interesting because it’s a stage race, which means it’s over multiple days — even for amateurs,” Taylor said. “Which is really cool because a lot of amateur races are one-day events, maybe two days, and this is a three-day event.

“… What’s also interesting is there’s climbing at elevation — that’s hard. For the elite athlete, for the amateur, for the person who’s been training for three years or three months, that’s gonna be hard for everybody.”

It’s an addicting sort of pain. Take J.P. Schreiner, for example. A native New Mexican who is a father of two and owns a plumbing and heating company in Albuquerque, Schreiner will be racing the Gila for the fifth time in the 2,3 category — the highest level for amateurs. There’s a reason why, even as life’s obligations become more demanding, that he keeps coming back.

“The riding down in Silver City and the Tour of the Gila is incredible,” Schreiner said. “The promotion, the quality of the field. It’s really one of the only stage races left in the country that’s available to amateur racers. And being in our backyard, it’s just phenomenal.”

While the amateur race offers plenty of appeal, the professional category — typically referred to as UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), the world governing body for cycling — attracts teams from all over the world. Case in point: The 2024 Tour of the Gila will host a women’s team from Uzbekistan, among others. According to race co-director Michael Engleman, the international presence will be slightly diminished this year due to a combination of scheduling conflicts and the upcoming Summer Olympics. Still, this is a race that has drawn top riders — think Lance Armstrong, Mara Abbott and Kristin Armstrong, to name a few — on a consistent basis.

“It’s just unique. It’s got a couple mountaintop finishes. You’re out in the wilderness. There’s definitely a lot of teams that want to come,” said Engleman. “The race is known globally. It’s a little bit of a legendary race because people have either heard about it or raced it.”

The event is a point of pride for Silver City, as well. Residents open their homes to riders, and for a few days, the southwestern New Mexican town gets to expose the world to its charms.

“It’s always a big deal. It’s a cycling community. It’s an outdoor community. There’s three bike shops in that little town,” Engleman said. “It’s just something that everybody expects every year. The restaurants are full. The grocery stores are full … There’s so many events that go on down there. It just kind of fits in among everything else.”

The amateur race has undergone one noteworthy change for the upcoming event. In past years, it had the same number of stages (five) as the UCI race. Now, it will be four stages for the highest-level amateurs and three for all others.

“The fields were getting so small that we had to make some changes,” Engleman said. “I’m hoping that maybe that would draw some people in if it’s a long weekend versus taking a whole week off. We just had to try it.”

Even with that adjustment, the course will be plenty challenging. It’s why people keep coming back.

“As long as I can train and race and afford to, it’s something I would return to every year,” Schreiner said. “If there’s any amateur racers who are looking to have experiences close to what a professional would, it’s got to be up there with the best.”

Taylor, meanwhile, expects to reconnect with old cycling friends and most likely, make new ones.

“There’s no bonding quite like suffering up a mountain,” she said.