Race Report: 2025 Levi’s Gran Fondo - Growler Eilte

Date: April 19, 2025

AVRT racers: Andrew Ernst, Erik Levinson

Top Result: Andrew 41/108

Course: 137 miles with 13,700’ of climbing. The first 30 miles and the last 20 miles are very flat. The elevation is almost entirely within the middle 87 miles and consists of four main climbs with plenty of smaller rolling hills. Road surfaces were about 80% decent pavement, 15% rough old pavement, and maybe 5% dirt/gravel.  

Nutrition: I ate an extra 500-1000 calories per day in the two days prior to the race. Had a bowl of cereal and pot of half caffeinated coffee the morning of the race as well as four Pop-Tarts 60-90 minutes before the race. During the race I had 12 gels, two of my own bottles with 75g carb each, and three bottles of mix from the neutral feed. Total ~5000 calories between breakfast and nutrition during the race.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14227002791

Race Recap: Erik and I discussed goals before the race which boiled down to staying safe and in good position on climbs as to not get dropped by a group. It would be an especially long day riding solo.

The race was full gas from the start. We both tucked into the peloton which carried us along at 28mph for the first 30 miles. We were both out of position at the base of the first climb and had to dodge riders who were falling back as we made up positions. The front of the race (and Erik) were rapidly out of sight and I looked around for riders who were matching my pace. Near the top of the climb, I latched onto a group of five who gave a nice draft along the ridgetop and down the first sketchy decent. Among this group was Troy Fields who had won the circuit race at Sea Otter the weekend prior. It was around this point (mile 50) where we caught Erik who had wisely taken the descent cautiously.  

We all rode together for the next ten miles taking short pulls through a series of rollers. We were caught by a large group with a bunch of strong riders including Miles Hubbard, Ryan Gorman, Ted King, Victor Perez, and Taylor Dawson (Sea Otter Gravel 90 winner). Our group of ~ 20 hit the second climb and Erik took off with Miles. Erik had said he wanted to ride hard on the climbs in order to be more conservative on descents. I would have done the same if I had the fitness. I rode just below threshold to stay with the group through climbs two and three. About half of the riders in our group were dropped through these two climbs and descents.

At the start of Geysers, the final climb of the day, we had about ten guys in our group including Ryan Gorman, Ted King, Taylor Dawson, Victor Perez, and Troy Fields. This next section was rough, both in terms of the elevation gain and the road surfaces. There were countless sections of gravel to navigate at high speed. Here we caught Miles and Erik who was starting to get sick. I was out of gels and very low on motivation, so had nothing to offer but a few mumbled words of encouragement, as much for myself as for him.

Taylor went solo when the road got steep which left six of us to chase until the finish. Despite riding the final flat 20 miles at nearly 25mph into a 5-10mph headwind, we were unable to catch Taylor. I rolled in 5th in our group of six making no real attempt at a sprint for 37th place. Erik came in a bit later having had terrible luck with illness and an untimely flat tire.

Overall the race went quite well for me. I was able to fuel well and follow good wheels through technical sections. It was worth pushing into the red a few times to have a group to ride with at the end. Hopefully next year we can get a few more AV riders out there!