Positive reactions are resounding amongst street and off-road riders to the information that The Growler at Levi’s GranFondo has inflated the one-day race prize purse by 283%, the entire for the highest 10 women and men now a mixed $156,000.
In addition, organisers revealed earlier this week that separate begin occasions will probably be carried out for elite and junior divisions and new end protocols within the return to Windsor, California will enable prime professionals to separate from newbie riders on the run-in. Now in a second 12 months with a money purse within the longest distance occasion for Levi’s GranFondo, The Growler takes place with all fondo rides on Saturday, April 19.
“When you will have a prize purse this sturdy, it can assure a really deep area, one of many deepest fields we have ever seen. Once that information dropped [Tuesday], each rider globally who could make it occur is popping out of the woodwork. The win will probably be far more prestigious than the inaugural one,” Sonoma County native Peter Stetina, who completed sixth final 12 months, advised Cyclingnews.
“I’m so excited concerning the big prize purse for The Growler and by no means thought I might be making a gran fondo considered one of my season targets,” Lauren De Crescenzo (Factor/The Feed/Wahoo/PERC) verified to Cyclingngnews that she plans to defend her elite girls’s title.
Confirmations started to hit warp velocity for the elite area as registrations opened within the new 12 months for all seven trip distances at Levi’s GranFondo, which was co-founded by retired WorldTour professional Levi Leipheimer close to his former dwelling in Santa Rosa, California. This will probably be a sixth version for The Growler, a 139-mile endurance check with greater than 13,500 toes of elevation achieve on uncompromising tough roads, and solely the second time for a prize purse.
Luke Lamperti (Soudal-QuickStep) first rode Levi’s GranFondo in 2011 when he was eight years outdated, finishing the 60-mile route. Now taking the beginning for a fifth time, he was desirous to not solely showcase his dwelling roads to a world area but additionally formally settle for a finisher’s prize for the primary time.
“For me, it is dwelling roads right here in Sonoma County, so any time I’ve an opportunity I get to trip with a bunch of individuals in Sonoma County it is at all times wonderful. Now that it is a race, I’m tremendous excited to come back again to it and hopefully competing to win it,” Lamperti advised Cyclingnews quickly after the small print had been launched for the 2025 occasion.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, opinions and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“When I used to be 9 I first did the gran, which was 100 miles. I keep in mind I bought a giant bottle of tequila. But clearly, I used to be underage then and could not settle for it myself. Now with the prize cash this 12 months, it is tremendous superior to see the quantity the sum of money they’ve put behind it.
“[It will] hopefully get a variety of [riders] out in Sonoma County and see a few of the finest roads on the planet. They are a few of my favorite coaching roads in all the world and I look ahead to sharing it with everybody and competing in Levi’s GranFondo.”
The timing of The Growler enhances the gravel calendar for a lot of riders. It falls between Sea Otter Classic Gravel elite race on April 10, the beginning of the Life Time Grand Prix collection, and an abundance of races the subsequent weekend of April 25-27 that embrace BWR California and a trio of UCI Gravel World Series races throughout the US, Canada and Italy.
“The timing of The Growler on April 19 is nice for me, particularly following Sea Otter Gravel the week prior. I’ll solely have to ebook one flight to California,” stated De Crescenzo, who will line up in opposition to Heather Jackson, Sarah Sturm (Specialized) and Flavia Oliveira Parks (Excel Sports) because the early girls’s favourites.
“Last 12 months, I completely beloved the relentless climbing, tough roads, and 120-mile distance—it felt like the right mix of my favorite elements of gravel merged with my first love– the street. I believe the occasion is reinvigorating street racing within the US for positive.”
On the roadside, The Growler is bookended by Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race. Leipheimer and Stetina agreed that the roads in Sonoma County had been worthy of comparability with the European Classics. And now the prize cash is analogous. The complete purses differ, however with $25,000 up for grabs for the lads’s winner in California (the identical for the ladies’s winner), that’s simply $5,000 lower than the lads’s winner of Paris-Roubaix and almost $10,000 greater than the Amstel Gold Race.
“The metrics maintain as much as any one-day Classic in Europe, however these roads are more durable – they’re pitchy, undulating, slower. It’s simply ‘exhausting yards’. It simply wallops you bodily,” Stetina stated.
“It makes use of a few of the identical roads because the Tour of California ulitized in 2016. That 12 months it was riders within the WorldTour peloton who had been hooting and hollering and stated it was essentially the most enjoyable day they’ve had on a motorbike race. And The Growler is simply principally a child model of that.”
Leipheimer stated that along with Stetina and Lamperti, 2024 males’s winner Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) was confirmed to take part, in addition to three-time Cape Epic MTB winner (Specialized Off-road) Matt Beers and US gravel nationwide champion Brennan Wertz (Mosaic Cycles).