Pete Stetina is back for round two of the Race Roundups Series to break down his experience at Levi's Gran Fondo, The Growler. This remodeled road race brought an impressively deep field to the roads of Sonoma County.
Pete: In an effort to help resuscitate road cycling in America, Levi Leipheimer transformed the hardest distance of Levi’s Gran Fondo, the Growler, into a competitive race this year. I live in Sonoma County where the event happens; these are my everyday training roads, and I was privileged that he used me as a sounding board when going about producing the race.
As big-time UCI road racing has all but disappeared with the demise of Tour of California and Utah in recent years, it has become clear that the European model simply doesn’t cut it stateside. But you know what works phenomenally well here? The mass start/gravel format. And LGF, already being such an event, has that dialed.
Thus, he created a road race in gravel fashion: mass start with neutral aid stations to level the playing field but on an all-pavement course and an extremely difficult one at that. The Growler is 140 miles with 14,000 ft of elevation gain on rough twisty roads, and boasts a $55,000 purse split evenly between the male and female pros.
I was extremely motivated as this was truly a home-field advantage: I was racing on my roads and with my community’s support. The forecast turned south for race day; wet and cold weather would make things even harder. Knowing the 3 aid stations would have full bottles of water or Gu Roctane (60g carbs/bottle), I set about making a high-carb fueling plan to combat the cold weather (when your body tends to rely even more on sugars for fuel).
Additionally with long-finger gloves and jackets galore, eating on the bike tends to be problematic, so I elected to save the tasty bars for warmer days and focused on the single-serve simplicity of gels. It was about getting the fuel in and not fussing with manual dexterity. With my 2 start bottles and the neutral bottles I had nearly half the calories I’d need for the day, and the rest came in the form of Maurten 160 gels, Stryker gels, Spring Energy gels, and a SIS Nootropics gel for the extra kick. It worked out to somewhere between 100-115g/hour depending on how fast we raced.
The race played out just as I initially expected. It was selective and attrition-focused like gravel but there was an extra emphasis on tactics that the speeds of road racing and drafting can deliver. It was stressful to see Keegan Swenson’s teammate, Tobin Ortenblad, attack from the gun and no one react. This set up a scenario where the 5-star favorite got to sit in while we chased all day. I decided to use my local knowledge to push the race in technical moments but nothing ever materialized.
About halfway through the day, a pair of European ex-World Tour pros, Petr Vakoc and Lawrence Nasen, co-attacked. And again, no one reacted! I had no choice but to take up the chase in earnest on the day’s biggest climb, into a headwind. The selection was finally made, it was Griffin Easter, Ian Boswell, Alex Wild, Matt Wiebe, Keegan, and myself a few minutes behind the European duo that had caught Tobin.
We settled into chase mode but were struggling to make a true dent in their lead. Finally, in the last climbs of the day, we caught a very tired Tobin and Keegan was ready to pounce. Somehow Boz impressively followed him but my lights didn’t even flicker, they just went flat dark. I realized then and there, in the cold rain on the steepest grade, that my overzealous affection for my home race was my downfall: I’d worn my heart on my sleeve, taken the onus of the race upon myself too much, and hadn’t conserved enough. I’d forgotten that sometimes to win, one must risk losing. That was something I hadn’t been willing to do. I finished a dejected 6th, off the podium.
I won’t lie that this one stings. But, I’m also brimming with pride that our community got to showcase such a cool race with such a talented field. Keegan would go on to impressively catch the leaders and win the sprint, proving he’s got great road tactics sense as well. The Feed’s HPT athlete Lauren De Crecenzo won the women’s race!
I hope this model can serve as a template for other organizers wishing to produce road events that splash. And I know all too well there’s another race around the corner to right some wrongs as the season rolls on. Plus, I can't wait for the Growler again in 2025.
That’s all for Race Roundups #2. We appreciate the insight cultivated from Pete’s racing and look forward to sharing the next one with you!
Photo courtesy of Topo Collective.
