A 3-fold improve within the prize purse at this yr’s The Growler, the 139-mile one-day street race at Levi’s GranFondo, brings the overall payout to $156,000 for the highest 10 riders in males’s and girls’s divisions on April 19.
Other adjustments to the professional race embody separate begin instances for ladies, males and juniors, one designated ‘private assist’ space on the route and payouts going 10 deep. Last yr The Growler rewarded the highest 5 ladies and high 5 males equally with shares that totalled $55,000. This yr winners will obtain $25,000 checks.
The high-stakes rewards have already paid dividends for organisers with early commitments from the professionals, together with defending champions Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) and Lauren De Crescenzo (Factor/The Feed/Wahoo/PERC). Among contenders trying to remove the highest prizes and status on the boys’s facet embody Sonoma County natives Peter Stetina (Canyon CLLCTV) and Luke Lamperti (Soudal-QuickStep), Matt Beers, US gravel nationwide champion Brendan Wertz, and on the ladies’s facet top-four finishers Sarah Sturm and Flavia Oliveira Parks.
New title sponsorship from Skipstone, a limited-production property vineyard within the Alexander Valley space of Sonoma County, was liable for the large 283% improve in prize cash for the professional race. Event co-founder and former WorldTour rider Levi Leipheimer, who started the GranFondo in 2009 with Bike Monkey CEO Carlos Perez, stated the 2025 occasion isn’t just wealthy for rewards, but additionally beneficiant for the event of aspiring execs.
“We are so grateful for the beneficiant assist from our buddies at Skipstone. Fahri [Diner, proprietor at Skipstone] actually believes in within the ecosystem of the fondo and the way it’s a participatory occasion. Anyone can join it,” Leipheimer instructed Cyclingnews, noting that the occasion has seven trip distances and can once more assist the King Ridge Foundation.
“But we’re but giving again to at-risk youngsters, and we’re giving again to the game now with this prize checklist and providing a street race that has a decrease barrier to entry than your typical UCI-organized races, which they positively have their place. But I see this as a manner for individuals to get into the game, whether or not they’re simply signing up for the brief path to trip the primary time, or they’re an aspiring racer, and so they get to line up subsequent to Peter Stetina, Luke Lamperti, or Lauren De Crescenzo.”
The route for The Growler would be the similar as final yr, however there are a lot of modifications between the beginning and end strains within the city of Windsor. A mass begin will proceed for novice riders in all distances, nevertheless, the elite divisions within the Growler will every have their very own begin instances to start the day, the instances nonetheless to be decided. The third and fourth teams to begin would be the junior males, on the Geyser route of 86 miles, after which the junior ladies, on the Medio route at 68 miles.
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On the route for the primary time might be a ‘private assist’ zone the place athletes can have tools and diet might be picked up, or dropped. A impartial bottle feed can even be at this similar location for any rider.
“I give credit score to gravel as a result of I believe it has taught the athletes methods to be self-sufficient. That is an enormous purpose why this will work is as a result of we do not have an enormous comply with caravan such as you see within the Tour de France. There’s no private crew assist, we won’t have all that visitors. So riders have realized to be self-sufficient.
“We’ve invested much more in visitors management this yr, extra moto marshals on the market as a result of now we’ve got separate begins. My most important aim and my most important concern is I need everybody to be protected.”
The emphasis on security contains not simply route markings with distinctive arrows on every course, however particular deviations within the closing 7km when The Growler racers are anticipated to complete concurrently amateurs on shorter routes.
“When the highest males and high ladies are getting shut, we’ll begin to ship the riders on the shorter routes on a extra direct approach to the end. There might be separate end strains. Then when the highest males and the highest ladies have completed, the individuals on these shorter routes will proceed to go that approach to the end. It’s for everybody’s security.”
Registration is now open for The Growler and the opposite six distances for Levi’s GranFondo, with extra professional athletes to be introduced within the coming weeks.
Last yr Swenson accelerated previous former WorldTour professional Lawrence Naesen on the line to win the boys’s division of The Growler, whereas De Crescenzo soloed to victory within the ladies’s division.