Tour of the Gila is proud to be collaborating with JAKROO on the race jersey designs and production. Race director Jack Brennan works with JAKROO USA’s Betty O’Neill. “Obviously JAKROO wants to be in front of people. Our growth has been so related to grassroots,” she says. “We are fast, quality, high end. Tour of the Gila is a high-level stage race. JAKROO needs to be on those bodies and be seen.”

Familiar with road cycling as a former bike racer herself, Betty also has a special connection to Tour of the Gila. Her husband Nathan won the opening time trial in 2007 and went on to win overall that year. “That’s one of the reasons why we want to stay connected to it.”

Betty and Nathan ran their own stage race for 10 years. “We know what a horrendous challenge it is. It’s hard as a racer to come back. It’s way harder as a producer—and to gear yourself up to do it again and again after the hilarious abuse you get. I identify and just want to keep Tour of the Gila happening.”

While she has never competed in Tour of the Gila (“because those hard climbs are so legitimate”), Betty adamantly supports the race in southwest New Mexico’s mountains for that very reason: Stage races, especially ones as difficult as Tour of the Gila, are critical to American road cycling. “Against all odds, the pendulum is swinging back thanks to the people behind races like Tour of the Gila,” she says. “This is what racing is about and what needs to happen for racing in the United States.”

Brands need to support races that are hard, Betty says. “We don’t want Tour of the Gila to leave. We need a stage race in Colorado; we need one in the Midwest; we need one on the East Coast. The missing stage races and the fact that Tour of the Gila still exists is a testament to Jack and the team he’s built.”

Here’s a list of organizations that support the 2026 Tour of the Gila presented by New Mexico True.