Road racing in the US will get a huge boost on Saturday, April 19th, when The Growler – the 138-mile option of Levi’s GranFondo – will stream live via Youtube during the race’s final two hours. Commentators Matt Stephens and Hannah Walker will call the race finale as professionals, while defending champs Lauren De Crescenzo and Keegan Swenson, Luke Lamperti, Sarah Sturm, and Sofía Gómez Villafañe tackle one of the world’s most spectacular cycling routes, nestled among the coastal hills of Sonoma County in Northern California.
This will be the first time since 2020, when the Tour of California ran its final edition, that long-distance road racing will be broadcast live from within the US.
With the surge in popularity of gravel racing, road racing in the US has declined in both participation and cultural awareness in recent years, but Levi’s GranFondo and other well-established road cycling events continue to be popular and highly competitive. The roads of Sonoma Country prove that you can still have an epic adventure on skinny tires. While there are routes in the event for every level of cyclist, the Growler is the crown jewel and amasses nearly 14,000 feet of vertical gain over its 138-mile distance. Yeah… ouch. The Growler is on par with queen stages of The Giro d’Italia, Tour De France, and Vuelta Espana – races in which event founder Levi Leipheimer made his mark while racing professionally.
Leipheimer retired from professional road racing in 2013, after a successful career that ended under less than ideal circumstances resulting from his time at the now infamous United Sates Postal Servie Team. Whatever mistakes he made as a bike racer, he’s clearly done a lot to redeem himself through Levi’s GranFondo and its charitable contributions in the Santa Rosa area.
Levi’s GranFondo is a proud sponsor of the NorCal League, which aims to get kids on bikes at a young age, which in turn leads to the development of a select few world-class bike riders. Systems like the NorCal League are well-established in Europe but are starting to gain momentum stateside as well, producing riders like Luke Lamperti, who took part in the NorCal League while growing up in nearby Sabastapol. Lamperti captured the United States Elite Criterium Championship in 2021, becoming the youngest racer to ever win the stars and stripes in that discipline. Lamperti now rides for UCI World Tour Team Soudal-QuickStep, but will be lining up for The Growler with hopes of crossing the line first and claiming the winner’s share of the $156,000 prize purse – the largest one-day prize purse in the world of cycling.
