Race Report: Levi’s Elite Men’s Race

Date: April 25, 2026

AVRT racers: Wil Gibb, Vasyl Stokolosa 

Top Result: Vasyl (53rd), Wil (57th) out of 76

Course: 137 miles, 13,000 feet of climbing with gravel sections and sketchy descents. Four main climbs - King Ridge (6.5 miles, 6%), Skaggs (4.2 miles, 6.5%), Skaggs pt. 2 (4.2 miles, 5.6%), Geysers (15 miles, 4.5%). Several walls, with about 4 miles at or above 10%. Four neutral bottle feeds plus a supported feed zone at mile 82. 

Nutrition: Two 1L bottles with 210g carbs each, two feedzone bottles with 120g carbs each, three neutral feed bottles with 30g carbs/900mg sodium each, 90g from gels (~120g/hr) 

Strava: https://strava.app.link/IFG7FFyOJ2b

Recap: Written by Wil 

Two weeks before the race, I texted Vasyl, “I got FOMO and applied for the Levi’s pro race and got in lol.” One week before the race, I got norovirus, lost five pounds, and had to skip the Berkeley races. One day before the race, I ate as much as I could and hoped for the best. Great preparation all around, right? 

Realistically, with the start line full of gravel national champions and current and former world tour pros, my hope was to hold on to the peloton for the first 30-35 miles until we hit the first 10% wall. This is exactly how things played out. The group sent it up the first wall, and I figured my heart rate should not be 182bpm for super long when I’m only 90 minutes into a 7+ hour race. This was both much longer than any ride I’ve done, and almost twice as long as any race I’ve done. When I got dropped (see evidence below), I had been hoping for some company, but the pace really broke things up. I essentially did the remaining 100 miles solo. 

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, Vasyl had impressively snuck up the road into the early breakaway with some of the hitters (see below). This group had over two minutes on the main peloton. Vasyl, like myself, had the similar fate of fading from the group when the gradients hit 10%, but was able to hold his gap from me for the rest of the race. Had I known I’d have a buddy up the road, maybe I would have stopped to use the bathroom one less time and chased a little harder. 

Despite the outcome of this race being obvious from the start, I still learned some things. First, I think I nailed my nutrition - I still had legs at the end of the race. Going forward, maybe I can have the confidence to push a little harder in the beginning of ultra-long races, knowing my nutrition will come through. That being said, I should have relied more on solid carbs (gels, bars), as the over 4 liters of liquid I drank definitely slowed me down (4-5 minutes on bathroom stops). While I took a more passive strategy in the race, I was impressed that Vasyl was able to be active and play to his strength, using his power on the flat sections to gain an advantage in the early breakaway. Lastly, I learned I am not as fast as pro cyclists (a bitter pill for an amateur cyclist enthusiast to swallow). 

So, would I do this race again? I think so. The things I was nervous about beforehand (nutrition, bike setup, gravel sections) proved to not be huge deals. It would be fun next year to have a bigger team and see how far up the results sheet we can push ourselves.

Photo courtesy of Jenny Keller