TOUR OF THE GILA PROJECT OVERVIEW

Our team traveled to New Mexico to cover the 38th Annual Tour of the Gila, a legendary five-stage UCI road race featuring a time trial, three grueling road stages, and a downtown criterium in Silver City. Knox MMG was brought in to lead full-scale media production for the event—including photography, cinematography, post-production, and real-time social media coverage.

The Tour of the Gila team gave us a blank slate to bring their story to life. We assembled a compact, high-output crew: three cinematographers, two photographers, and two team members focused on live updates. With Starlink enabling connectivity in remote locations, we tracked both the UCI men’s and women’s fields throughout the week. From pilot bikes in the peloton to stationary cameras at start/finish lines, we captured every layer of the race—including atmospheric details that gave each stage its unique texture.

Road racing moves fast—you only get seconds to capture the perfect shot, and positioning is everything. Thanks to a strong local pilot team and detailed pre-production, we consistently landed in the right spots. At any given moment, we had a drone in the air, handheld cameras in motion, and long-lens setups on sticks—all working together to cover the story in real time.

One of the week’s standout moments was a sit-down interview with Jack Brennan, who’s been a key figure behind the race for over three decades. His passion and perseverance brought depth and purpose to the project.

Each day, we delivered photo and phone video clip updates for social media content from the course, and by night, turned around polished video recaps. After it was all over we worked on 12-minute short film that captures the race’s intensity, rugged terrain, and the deep community roots that make the Gila special. The film was distributed by Outside TV and Velo, helping bring national attention to this grassroots gem.

Special thanks to Doug Campbell for bringing us into the fold, and to Jack Brennan, Jennifer Olson, the Town of Silver City, New Mexico State Police, Silver City Police, the many volunteers and athletes, and our partners at Leaders of Enchantment.