A live broadcast for The Growler, part of Levi's GranFondo, is the newest enticement for pros as well as fans in the second edition of the prize-rich, 137-mile one-day US race, scheduled for April 19. The final two to three hours of the race will be shown live with multiple cameras following the action for both the elite women and the elite men and will be available for free on the race website via the YouTube channel feed.
Last year, a cash purse of $55,000 caught the attention of many top riders for The Growler, the longest of five distances offered at Levi's GrandFondo. This year bigger checks will be handed out from a $156,000 purse, split evenly among the top 10 from the elite men's and women's divisions.
So far more than 130 pro riders, a balance of elite women and elite men, have already confirmed participation for the climb-heavy competition in Sonoma County, California, including defending champions Keegan Swenson and Lauren De Crescenzo. Joining the fields are also runners-up Lawrence Naesen and Lauren Stephens as well as challengers Sofia Gomez Villafañe, who makes her first appearance, and Luke Lamperti, who last rode Levi's GranFondo when it was just an amateur event.
"We want to capture as much of the race as possible, as many athletes as possible, and showcase more of the landscape. This is bar-none the most difficult road race in America, meaning it will split up, and we want to capture more than just one group. It makes the viewing experience more dynamic, more exciting," Levi Leipheimer, a former WorldTour rider and co-founder of Levi’s GranFondo, told Cyclingnews.
"We're going to start the broadcast with a bit of a recap of the first four-ish hours of the race, then going back and forth between the men and the women for live action, probably closer to three hours. When they come back into Sonoma Valley from the coastal hills, we should start live coverage as they approach the final climb, The Geysers."
On the 139-mile route with 13,867 feet of climbing, the final third of the route begins with 18 uphill miles on the Geysers section, which leads to a technical descent and a final 10 flat miles to the finish in Windsor.
"Geysers is a 45-minute climb, very uneven and the last part is very steep. It is the crux of the entire course. I think what makes this exciting is there's a bit of a runway from the bottom of the descent to the finish. So things can come back together, it makes for an unknown result, which is exciting."
Multiple partners and up to 10 cameras, using motorbikes and drones, make the jump into broadcast coverage possible for The Growler. Three motos with cameras will focus on the men's race, while another three motos will cover the action in the women's race. Two more cameras will shift from the start to dedicated coverage at the finish, while a pair of drones will be on the course for
While all moto cameras have live streaming capability, Levi’s GranFondo Carlos Perez co-founder said Starlink would be used if the signal drops, which has already been tested on key sections of the course.
"The motos will be able to get a pretty solid signal throughout the entire, very technical course. There are a lot of areas on our course where there is no cell signal on any carrier, and Starlink was the only way to pull it off. We have run tests with all of this equipment and our tests were successful," Perez, also the founder of marketing agency Bike Monkey, explained to Cyclingnews.
"And we have separate starts, so that means the fields won't be mixed. There's going to be a moto at the front of the men, a moto at the front of the women, motos in the middle and motos towards what's happening in the back. The drone operators will catch some of the beauty shots in Sonoma County, to give context for the race."
From the mobile production studio operated by BBC Live, which has experience with Iron Man competitions, graphic overlays, pre-recorded highlights and a live ticker showing the progress of the riders will be incorporated with live video. Professional sports commentators Matt Stephens and Hannah Walker, with extensive backgrounds in road cycling at the WorldTour-level will announce the race.
Leipheimer said the new partnership with Skipstone, a winemaker in Alexander Valley, made it possible to elevate both the race's prize purse and secure funding for not just a live webcast, but a professionally produced broadcast to rival what was done at the Tour of California and Tour of Utah.
The Growler broadcast will join the race in progress at 11:00 a.m. PT, on levisgranfondo.com from the organiser's YouTube channel.
