Tour of the Gila is the race where young talent gets noticed. Development riders and teams strategically target the five-day UCI and USA Cycling stage race in Silver City, New Mexico. A top result in the notoriously challenging American stage race puts athletes among the sport’s names to watch.

Cases in point: Team California and Milton Women’s U23 Project. The U23 men’s team is based in the U.S., while the Canadian women’s team travels to compete in Tour of the Gila. Both will bring full rosters for the 37th  Tour of the Gila this April 24-28, 2024.

A Roster Geared Toward Gila Proven
“When I’m hunting the country for riders, we’re looking for riders who can do something great at [Tour of the] Gila,” says Team California Director AJ Kennedy. “A very significant amount of our roster is built on talent that’s worthy of being there, giving them an opportunity to shine. A couple significant results at [Tour of the] Gila will garner you than just racing locally or regionally or going to a bunch of crits. You do something important at Gila, you’ll get noticed.”

Emphasizing Team California’s almost single-minded focus on preparing for southwest New Mexico’s stage race, Kennedy says the weight of Tour of the Gila surpasses that of other major stage races in North America.

Kennedy first rode Tour of the Gila in the pro race in 1993. “It was an epic realization of how hard Tour of the Gila was,” he recalls. Returning in 2015 as a Team Director for a different program, then bringing riders from his own program in 2016, Kennedy is now going on his eighth year directing a team that races Tour of the Gila. (The team has stayed in over 30 host houses over the years!)

Adding to the race’s three road stages and hard time trial is the technical criterium. “For us last year, [getting the best young rider jersey] was the culmination of many years of work taking it stage one and holding it all five stages. It was a pretty inspiring moment. The guys supported Caleb Classen and that got him a pro contract.”

The Choice Race in North America
Milton Women’s U23 Project Sports Director Martin Honsberger said their first-year team researched a few different stage race options in the U.S. to determine which would give the riders the best bang for their budget. The conclusion: Tour of the Gila was that race. “This is probably the premier event on our schedule,” he says.

As Honsberger talked to Tour of the Gila, he watched riders on a velodrome. “The whole story starts here. This team is born out of the velodrome,” he says. At one of two UCI facilities in North America, he has developed top track talent from U17 and U19. He noticed that “all of this great talent would quit because there’s nowhere to go.”

As a solution, Honsberger worked to start a road-focused team out of Milton, Ontario. “The mandate is to bring riders coming out of junior categories and give them more runway: do more race starts, more big events, travel to the U.S., and prepare them for the next step, which would be an elite or pro team,” he says, setting up the team’s background. “That was the piece that was missing. Considering all the talent we’ve been producing at the velodrome. This team is about giving them the exposure they need to make it onto either a national team or pro road team.”

Lifelong cyclist Honseberger has raced “basically everything.” When his oldest daughter started riding at the track, he volunteered on the board of the local cycling club, eventually becoming president and coaching, working with the Ontario provincial team on the road and track. The opportunity to create a women’s development team then sprouted.

Tour of the Gila fits into the team’s goal of preparing riders for elite and pro teams perfectly. “As a development team, being able to do a UCI race with large high-quality fields is the kind of experience we want them to have. It also gives them the exposure they need to potential pro teams. For us, having invitations to a race like Gila is a big deal for us.”

It’s such a big deal that they are traveling from Ontario to southwest New Mexico. “The team is going to fly in. I’m going to hook a trailer to a truck and do the drive across America,” Honsberger says. “I want to go to an event like this proper. We need the equipment to warm up. We need everything we’d have at a race closer to home.”

As for a roster, Honsberger says, “My plan at this point is to bring a full squad of 6 plus maybe a couple extras.”
Of the Milton Women’s U23 Project riders, Honsberger mentions Taylor Tompkins as a “very strong rider” who raced in the U19 Track World Championships this year and, with national championships under her belt, needs the experience of this long North American UCI stage race.

With a multisport background, the team’s Serena Grodski will be competing in her second North American UCI race. “She’s an all arounder who can climb well. She’s also got one hell of a sprint,” Honsberger says.

Dylan Baker competed at the Junior World Road Championships and has “done a fair bit of UCI racing in Europe,” so will be sharing her experience with the team.

Looking to expand their race calendar next year, Honsberger says the Milton Women’s U23 Project is excited that their young riders will get some UCI starts on such great courses at Tour of the Gila 2024.