A six-figure prize pot, a functioning livestream, and a course that’d make the world’s best Ardennes riders quake – all in the gorgeous hills of northern California. Is American road racing back?
Levi’s Gran Fondo has been a staple on the NorCal cycling scene since 2009. It’s headed by the eponymous Levi Leipheimer, a man who needs little introduction [see footnote] to American bike racing fans.
But for 2025, the event upped the ante. It offered the biggest prize pot for any single-day bike race in the world, and provided a professionally filmed and commentated livestream. For seven hours in Sonoma Country, American racing fans were given a taste again of what a truly well-organised cycling event looks like.
This is the model
If you want to bring road racing back to America, for my money this is the model to do it.
You need a fondo ride (and the expo) to draw the in-person crowds, a livestream to capture eyeballs, and a big prize pot to attract the pros.
Levi’s offers seven different distances. There’s the ‘Family’ event which sits at 13 km all the way to the Growler, a 221 km epic with 4,227 meters / 13,868 ft of climbing. The start/finish line is in the town centre of Windsor, just north of Santa Rosa, where there’s live music all day, a big screen so fans can watch the livestream of the pros, and a quality expo. I looked around in awe; this is how it's done.
I hate to say it, but it’s almost taking the gravel (well, triathlon) business model – mass participation meets elite racing – and applying it to road racing. There were 1,953 entries to the event.
With a $156,000 prize purse (evenly divided between the men's and women's fields) and a professionally produced livestream, there’s no question that Levi’s Fondo had a large budget at its disposal.
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