As a UCI-sanctioned race, Tour of the Gila must provide housing for teams participating in the UCI men’s and women’s races. Amateur racers tend to book up the hotels and vacation rentals, and it’s more cost-effective for the race to ask community members to house teams in the UCI race.

Staying at a house with a kitchen and bike storage is also somewhat more convenient than a hotel, where space is limited and meals cannot be cooked for large groups between stages. While some teams do book hotel rooms for their riders and staff members, others rely on the community to welcome them in.

Many housing hosts offer their homes simply to support the race. Doing so offers families benefits too, and many cite getting to know individual racers as the greatest benefit. Hosting racers is a way to learn more about the sport of road cycling, and it’s a way to introduce role models to children in the host household. To sign up as a housing host, fill out this form (check the “host family” box) or email housing@tourofthegila.com.

Here, a couple of local families offer their thoughts on host housing and lend encouragement to people considering opening their homes to road bike racers during race week, which is April 23-27, 2025.

Cramm Family

In 2023 and 2024, the Cramm family hosted Team Novo Nordisk. The all-diabetic professional cycling team is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and its principal sponsor is the Danish global healthcare company, Novo Nordisk. “They are also all type 1 diabetics, and it is inspiring to see how they do not let that limit them in what they achieve,” says Jeff Cramm, who along with his wife Alicia had volunteered as drivers in past years and opened their house to help fill the need as well as have a new experience during Tour of the Gila.

The family expected the racers to be self-sufficient and respectful with demanding schedules, and they learned the racers actually had a bit of downtime that they were able to spend with the Cramms. “We hosted the entire team for a BBQ at the beginning of the week which was a lot of fun,” Jeff remembers.

“Overall, hosting had a rather low impact on our family life,” he says. “The two team members we host each year sleep on beds in my son’s room, while my two children get to have a sleepover in the other bedroom. Racers had full access to a bathroom and the kitchen. We provided room in the fridge, and they kept their dry goods in a box in the dining room.”

Bikes were stored at a nearby house, where the remainder of the team was housed.
“We have felt fortunate each year that the arrangements were successful, because we leave it up to the team to decide who will stay at our house and who will stay down the street with the bikes,” Jeff says. “Last year one of the riders became ill and was quarantined at our house. He was not able to race, and the other rider moved midweek to the other house.”

The most major hang up for the Cramms: a language barrier with some of the racers. “Luckily, there was always an English-speaking rider around to translate if needed,” Jeff says.

Overall, the Cramm family enjoys hosting because the children get to interact with people from another country as well as diverse backgrounds, forming bonds with the athletes they host each year. “The racers are very kind and take time to explain things to my kids,” Jeff says, remembering the cyclists sitting around the table to answer questions and share experiences from their travels with racing. “To us it is simple, if people do not volunteer and the teams do not have housing the race will not happen. It is one week a year out of our busy schedules, and it is fun to see a glimpse of the inside track to the Tour of the Gila.”

Egnal/Fitzgerald family
Also with two young children, Stuart Egnal and Erin Fitzgerald have taken in women’s teams during Tour of the Gila. The racers sleep on air mattresses in one big room on the lower level of the house, cook in the family’s kitchen, and store bikes in an out-of-the-way and safe place the family offered. The family let the athletes use their second fridge on the back porch to keep household goods separate from the guests’.

While they have hosted riders from differing teams each year, they’ve enjoyed all of them. “We’ve only had women’s teams. The first time it was an older team and the last team was a lot younger and they were still super cool,” Erin says. “They were super respectful of our house and thoughtful about our schedule because the kids were still in school. They cleaned up after themselves when they cooked.”

She and Egnal have also volunteered for Tour of the Gila in other capacities, as Egnal runs wheel support for some of the races. The whole family joined in the car as they followed the race one year, which further expanded the children’s understanding of the sport.

Having athletes stay in their house also added to the kids’ excitement about Tour of the Gila. “It definitely encouraged them to do the kids race too,” Erin says. “It was really fun.”

To sign up as a housing host, fill out this form (check the “host family” box) or email housing@tourofthegila.com.