Silver City’s Tour of the Gila powered by SRAM Unveils Trophy Bowls

Silver City’s Tour of the Gila powered by SRAM Unveils Trophy Bowls

Handcrafted for the winners

Silver City, NM (April 26, 2013) -The Silver City’s Tour of the Gila powered by SRAM unveiled the trophy bowls that will be awarded to the overall winners at the 27th edition of New Mexico’s premier road stage race held on May 1-5, 2013. The high fire white stoneware with Mimbres Designs were handcrafted in a collaborative effort between potter Robin Parsons and her husband Fred Pineda.

“The bowls are definitely a labor of love. The race is very special for me.” said Parsons who has been creating the trophy bowls every year since the event was first held in 1987. “It’s been wonderful for Silver City and it’s been wonderful for me all these years because it’s kept me going when I had another career.”

When choosing the design and creating the bowls, Parsons and Pineda always keeps the racers in mind. “We think of the race and what it is, it is such an incredible human feat”. A fact that is obvious in her art.

Three-time overall winner Burke Swindlehurst stated that his trophy bowls are the only cycling mementoes for his long career displayed in his home. “They’re incredibly beautiful and unique pieces of artwork from a local artist. I love that someone can walk into my home and admire and appreciate the bowls strictly from aesthetic and artistic point of view. It’s only after they ask where I got such a great piece of art that I end up telling the stories behind each one and turn them over to reveal that they are actually trophies from my favorite race and greatest achievements of my professional cycling career.”

Working together, Parsona and Pineda replicate the designs created by the Mimbres people. The Mimbres Culture, which flourished in Southwest New Mexico from around AD 500 to about AD 1150, produced pottery with fine geometric designs and the figures of humans, animals, birds and insects that were unique for that period. Bowls are often found associated with burials.

“I think of the bowls as a life achievement and so when you’re making them for the races, it feel very much in alignement with the concept of what bowls were given for, it’s something very special.” Parsons continued. “Since they’re on a round surface, it also lends itself to the wheel, the bicycle wheel and so many designs relate to that. And then there are the animal designs which also for the bike racers, they’re riding through this country, the animals that live here.”

“We do our best but we don’t ever feel that we get to where they were on some features. It’s such an incredible variety.”

The Silver City’s Tour of the Gila powered by SRAM trophy bowls will be awarded at the end of the fifth and final stage on Sunday May 5, 2013. All the trophy bowls can be viewed in a gallery on the TouroftheGila.com site.

The 2013 Silver City’s Tour of the Gila powered by SRAM consists of five stages– three road stages, one individual time trial and one criterium – with approximately 15,000 feet of climbing overall. The race culminates with the Gila Monster road stage – the make or break Queen Stage – with 5,610 feet of climbing and 4,714 feet of descending over 71.8 miles.