Several high-profile athletes have confirmed they will line up April 13 in northern California for the one-day Growler event, which is a pro-level 139-mile race at Levi’s GranFondo. Lawrence Naesen, who retired last year after six years at the WorldTour level, added his name to the men’s start list while former road cyclist and Gravel Locos winner Emily Newsom joins a growing field for women.
A significant change in the prize purse has been made by organiser Levi Leipheimer, who told Cyclingnews “our prize list nearly tripled”, as it has moved from $20,000 to $55,000. The pay day will be divided equally among the top five men and top five women completing The Growler, a trek across wine country of Sonoma County that features rough roads and 13,500 feet of climbing .
“I think it’s going to generate a lot of excitement about road racing in the US. Our partners, once they saw our efforts and the interest that it has created, they were just very enthusiastic and everybody pitched in to make it that much bigger of a deal,” Leipheimer said about how the purse has exploded. Two of the main partners include the City of Windsor and Specialized.
Cullen Easter, Griffin Easter, Caleb Classen and Zach Gregg have been added to the men’s field to compete against WorldTour veterans turned off-road experts such as Peter Stetina, Lachlan Morton and Petr Vakoč. On the women’s side, Newsom joins Flávia Oliveira Parks in a battle that includes Sarah Sturm, Heather Jackson and Peta Mullens.
Utah’s Truman Glasgow added to Life Time Grand Prix
Truman Glasgow, a 23-year-old from the US, has been added to the Life Time Grand Prix roster for 2024, filling a spot which was vacated by Australian Tasman Nankervis.
This year would have been a second effort for Nankervis in the US for the Grand Prix, but was unable to commit for the extended travel when he was not able to secure financial sponsorships.
“The last few months I’ve been dealing with trying to find sponsors and basically nothing has come up,” Nankervis told Cyclingnews in mid-January. He planned to pursue new opportunities to race through the year, which started with a victory at the inaugural RADL GRVL in South Australia.
Glasgow had victories at the Park City Point 2 Point mountain bike race and high-elevation Wasatch All Road gravel race, both in Utah where he is based. He has experience in Life Time events, finishing 13th at Big Sugar Gravel and 26th in Leadville Trail 100 MTB.
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