And before we even pour ourselves a dram of coffee, we reach out to you, our dear comrades, to announce that registration for the October 5th, 2013 GranFondo will open next Monday, January 14th at 9:00 AM, Pacific Standard Time at www.levisgranfondo.com/register.

We’re offering the same number of spots as last year (4000 Gran, 2500 Medio, and 1000 Piccolo) and we expect it to sell out, just as in every year that we’ve offered this hoe-down. And particularly like last year, it’ll be quick, painless, and shouldn’t require you to smash your mouse with endless refresh clicks.

While you’re registering, we’ll have pre-orders available for our 2013 GranFondo kits (free domestic shipping! kit discounts!) and a nice offer from our friends at Road ID. Lodging will go fast too, so you might as well make your reservations now.

And while we’ve been enjoying a low profile over the holidays, we haven’t exactly been completely snoozing. By the time you read this, we will have given nearly a quarter of a million dollars to our charities from the 2012 GranFondo, with over $150,000 to Forget Me Not Farm, $60,000 to the VeloStreet/GranFondo cycling programs, and almost $30,000 to the schools and fire departments along the GranFondo route. If you rode, fundraised, or volunteered at last year’s event, you’re to thank for this record-breaking giving and all the good work it’s going to support. We’re constantly humbled by the scope of the GranFondo and that’s never more so than when it comes time to give checks to the charities that drive our event. We couldn’t do it without you and, frankly, we wouldn’t want to if you all weren’t along with us.

But that was 2012 and we’ve got a bright new year ahead of us. The beast is roused and there’s no rolling back over. Join us in 2013 and start training. We’ll be lining up together before any of us know it.

Now that the dust has returned to the ground, and we can look in the mirror and recognize the now-handsome devils staring back at us, we’d like to make one more shout from our coastal rooftops. Sure, it’s mostly housekeeping, but it’s a house we shared together and we’re already looking forward to seeing you all again on OCTOBER 5, 2013. For those of you lacking in subtlety, we just officially announced the date of the 2013 GranFondo. That sound you heard was hotel rooms sucking into the vacuum.

Welcome to the layer cake, son:
Ride Reports: The Careful Cataloguing Of Cadence
Rider (and otherwise) Photos: Instahipstergrams of You, Just Killing It.
E-Swag Bag: Fondo-only Discounts On All The Hot Goods
Results: Positive, By Most Margins, But Why Did They Take So Long?
Survey: Your Opinion Matters, Even If It’s Wrong
GranFondo App: The Majesty of King Ridge, Right In Your Pocket

From our King Ridge Bureau…
If a bike ride happened and nobody blogged about it, did it really take place? Bringing out our press clippings will kill a party faster than “Hotel California,” so we’ve curated a small collection on our website, free and available for you to enjoy at your leisure and for as long as you may like. Think of it as time travel, all from the confines of your cubicle. If you seem ‘em out in the ether, send us a link and we’ll add ‘em to our list.

Developing Story
Rider photos are up and we’ve not seen such a good-looking crew in, well, about a year. We’ve got shots of you on the bike wincing and grinning, as well as the high-drama shots of the course, landscape, mass of riders, etc. They’re all available at www.granfondo.smugmug.com and you could easily lose an hour flipping through the images. Do plan your distraction accordingly.

Printed on Photons
For those of you lamenting the lack of paper-borne offers in our rider musette bags, we happily ann…oh, that’s right. No one laments this. At all. Ever. But getting a break on goods and services from Fondo friends is everyone’s cup o’ tea. They’re expanding by the day, so check www.levisgranfondo.com/swagbag for the chance to enjoy products and services from Road ID, 1st Endurance, Buff, and more.

Results And All That Comes With Them
Drink in the delightful validation (or hideous agony) contained in those wee few numbers next to your name and route. You’ve earned them and we’re keeping them at www.levisgranfondo.com/results.  As usual, we consider these results “unofficial” as outlier times are being adjusted and we do depend on a measure of crowd-sourcing to beef up our data. We expect an occasional correction and those problems can be reported here. So why did they take so long to post?

In order to make individual rider photos available to you, we associate them with your results. Without this step, you all are wrangling through thousands of photos to get a shot of you on bike. Unfortunately, this process takes a ton of time, even with a big hustle. But, in the end, you can get your shot and your ride times without wearing out your mouse clicking through photos. For those of you that were around, this is indeed related to our photo incident last year, more info on which can be found here. We do apologize for the delay.

You Tell Us
We’ve cooked up a survey so that you all can tell us what you liked, what you didn’t like, and why you’re quite certain that we turned up the gravity on some of the bigger climbs. It takes less time than brushing your teeth, if you were the type of person that takes 12.5 minutes to brush your teeth. We read all of them, partly because we’re deathly curious, but mostly because this is your event and we need to know what you want to see in future iterations of the GranFondo. An as a reward for sharing your deepest innermost thoughts, we’re kicking down prizes from the GranFondo Merchandise Depot/Goodie Showering Zone to lucky respondents picked at random. So go fill it out now and be surprised when something delightful graces your mailbox.

Mobility Minded
Our GranFondo app is not just relevant for the days and weeks before the event. We’d like to use it to deliver content to you year-round and would love to hear what you all think about it. All you have to do is head on over to www.levisgranfondo.com with your mobile device and you’ll be prompted to install it. It’s even easier than the app store and, yes, it’s certainly free.

Thanks again to you all for a great time. And for keeping the injuries down. And for working hard on your bike. And for smiling through it all. We can’t wait to see you all very soon.

As a young event, we’re figuring things out from year to year and, while some things we get right out of the gate, we’re learning that others have a more realistic time frame. Case in point: rider photographs. After the 2010 running of Levi’s GranFondo, many of our fine riders asked if there couldn’t be shots of each of them rather than just photos of lead groups and pro cyclists. You had seen it in many other events and we agreed that it was a good way to add value to the GranFondo. So, in 2011, we hired several photographers to do the standard motosupported, lead group, hanging-out-the-helicopter photo shooting, but we also stationed other pro photographers along locations like Hwy 1, Coleman Valley, and Willow Creek Road. These were all photographers that were invited to participate and whose work was vetted to meet the caliber of our event. They attended orientations and were given instructions on where to station themselves, how to shoot, etc. They got some great shots, over 14,000 of them, and uploading them has been a massive process. We went to a considerable expense to put these photographers in place and to host the images, so believe us, we want you to be able to get your hands on them. We’re working every day on getting this done, but you may be surprised to know what’s holding us up more than anything. More on that in a minute.

Now, many of you have heard from an event photo service called PhotoCrazy, stating that they have “amazing” photographs of each of you at Levi’s GranFondo ready to go for the low price of $25 each. You may have also heard that we’ve asked them not to share those photos for a variety of reasons. We were happy to keep this matter private, but unfortunately, you all have been dragged into this and we now feel that we owe it to you, our dear customer, to set the record straight.
PhotoCrazy was not invited to photograph Levi’s GranFondo. They asked, but we did not extend them an invitation. They did not attend orientations. They did not avail themselves of our protocols, which were in place to protect rider safety, respect neighboring landowners, and ensure compliance with our event permits. The station they set up on Sullivan Road caused serious backlash with property owners who were never made aware of the presence of their equipment. PhotoCrazy’s setup also was out of compliance with the encroachment permit we’re required to get from the County of Sonoma, placing a blemish on an otherwise spotless relationship with a crucial event partner. PhotoCrazy’s remotes and strobes are not what we consider to be safe equipment for riders in large, dense groups like those on Sullivan Road. Additionally, Levi’s GranFondo, like any other business, does not take kindly to misrepresentation of our two entities’ association nor with the signage and presentation of their service. Since PhotoCrazy did not respect our process or our protocols, we resent the assumption that they in any way represent our event. Finally, we’ve seen a sampling of the photos that were taken at Sullivan Road. We do not feel that they are up to the caliber of product we wish to associate with Levi’s GranFondo. We hold a high standard and we do not feel our event or our riders are well served when we compromise it. For these reasons, we’ve firmly requested that PhotoCrazy refrain from sharing images that denigrate our standards and processes.

Which is all well and good, but you all just want a picture of yourself on your bike. We know, we know.

Now, the more interesting thing here is that PhotoCrazy’s owner patented the process associated with searching rider photos by bib number, jersey color, sock cuff length, or any other identifying piece of data that can act as a tag to tie a photo to a particular person. Any event promoter that allows their photos to be searched by rider number, etc. needs to either pay a licensing fee to Mr. Wolf, allow PhotoCrazy to shoot their event, or open themselves up to possible legal action from Mr. Wolf. We have already received correspondence from Mr. Wolf stating exactly this and there are several court cases demonstrating Mr. Wolf’s intention to pursue legal action against anyone infringing on his patent. A simple search on the Google can tell you more. The text of his patent is here for those of you who are interested.

So, we’ve been working hard on a process that allows you all to easily access the photos from photographers whose shots are of sufficient quality and who conducted themselves respectfully in accordance with our protocols. This has taken time and we’re very sorry that you all are bearing the brunt of this inconvenience. We promise that we’re going to get you your photos, they’ll look great, and the price will be very agreeable. We’re hoping to have them in your hands no later than the end of the week. Shouldn’t they be, after all this?

We thank you sincerely for sticking with us through this unseen debacle. Our riders are top drawer and many of you are saying that this is the only shortcoming you’ve had in your entire GranFondo experience. While we’re not happy about that feedback, we’re glad that so many other aspects of the event exceeded your expectations.
Please do contact us with any questions and know that we deeply regret this inconvenience.

Best,
Levi, Carlos, and the whole GranFondo team

For all our talk of inevitability, of looming arrival, of warnings that time is short, it sure seems different when you’re staring this thing in the face. It’s largesse and scale seem to float right back down to earth and, all of sudden, it feels like the simple thing that it is: a big day out with friends, all across canvas of green, blue, and gold, soundtracked by the wind and your own heaving breath.

Sure, it’s a big deal. Lots of money is spent. And we’d be the last people to downplay the effort that goes into planning and executing this thing. Or the work the riders have put into achieving the fitness needed to complete it. But watching it distill down to its core is a great reminder of what brought us all here in the first place and what keeps us understanding each other, despite coming to Santa Rosa from every far-flung corner of the globe:

There’s a rich, beautiful day ahead of us. It just needs 7,500 smiling people to fill it up.

Before we go:

• Give yourself the gift of time. Getting ready for a bike ride always takes 10 minutes more time than you have. Lay out the ride clothes before bed. Put your food and water bottles right next to them. Pump up tires and lube chains the night prior. Go get your free tube from NorCal Bike Sport. Catch a movie (but buy your tickets now). Maybe there’s time to catch up on GranFondo reading. Don’t undertake a new repair or test-ride a new saddle for the first time. If it worked last time, don’t listen to that voice telling you it needs “adjusting.” The start of the GranFondo is a hell of a spectacle and you get to be right in the thick of it. Allow yourself 10 minutes to enjoy that.

• Use your judgement. Yes, it’s a timed ride on a course that defines the very word challenge. But that doesn’t mean that it’s worth an injury to yourself or others. You didn’t get this far on the bike by chucking common sense, ignoring course signage, descending beyond control, and trying to stay on the wheel of some tiny guy half your age. It’s your day; enjoy it on your terms.

• Take good care. We can only do so much to provide a safe ride. It’s up to you to eat well and often. With temperatures nearing 90 degrees, you’ll need to line up hydrated and stay that way all day. Be alert riding in that big big big group of riders in the first 25 miles and don’t succumb to distraction–that text can wait. Look for oncoming traffic; only the first quarter of the ride has closed roads and even those closures may not keep someone from leaving their driveway.

• Have fun. There’s a lot of noise around bike riding today. Much is made of the “right” way to do things in the saddle. The greatest success you’ll have on the GranFondo is leaving all that behind. Live a little. Smile. Don’t take it so seriously. If you’re feeling particularly whimsical, you can even put your helmet straps on over your sunglasses. But don’t get too crazy.

See you all soon. It feels sincerely good to write those words.

• Volunteers are still needed. Benefits abound. Enlist here!
• Missed an issue? Previous newsletters live behind this curtain. No excuses!

Hear that? It’s the delicate tik-tik-tik of a zip tie, ratcheting itself tighter and tighter around an upright, fastening a GranFondo directional sign out on the creek path. It’s happening right now, as you read these very words, and it’s one of a veritable symphony of elements all coming together in one place.

That’s not to say we’re relaxing. Oh no, dear reader, we’re bouncing off walls, wearing the clothes and shoes we slept in, and drinking water that, in some cases, isn’t even carbonated (we know, right?).

But don’t mistake our weeks-old stubble and droopy eyes for a chink in our armor. We’re all taking flight together Saturday morning. There’s no stopping us now. Frankly, there never was.

Parts is Parts
Registration and Packet Pickup
The Levi Effect Premiere
Parking/shop rides
The FondoSonoma Festival
Camelbak/Road ID/Zipp
Swag Bag
GranFondo App
Notable Attendees

Registration and Packet Pick-up
Like the Fates, your name is written in our big golden book. It’s already on an envelope with your rider bib and your number plate nestled therein. The only way for you to get it is to come on down to the Finley Center on Friday between 10AM and 10PM, sign two forms with your own embodied, non-possessed hand, and present a photo ID. You can’t pick up someone else’s registration for them, so don’t even ask. Those of you who can’t make Friday can come by between 6AM and 8AM on Saturday morning, but do try to not put this on yourself. There is much to do before the GranFondo begins at 8AM. Do not add this to your list.

We’ll have valet bike parking on Friday, a pretty keen expo of vendors, GranFondo merchandise, and information assistance, not to mention the GranDonut going off at 2:00. Yes, you read that right: Dempsey vs. (Kristin) Armstrong vs. Leipheimer vs. Danielson vs. Rusch vs. Fatty, head-to-head, with donuts. We’ll see you there.

On Saturday, we’ll just have a ton of people getting ready to ride their bikes. Try to be one of them, rather than one of those folks in line.

The Levi Effect Premiere
For those of you just emerging from the fallout shelters, we’ve put together a feature-length movie about our own El Patron, a little piece of cinema we’re calling The Levi Effect. This puppy is debuting in theaters nationwide on October 23rd, but we wanted GranFondo riders to get an early shot at seeing it. As such, we’ve rented out the Roxy Theater in downtown Santa Rosa and will be screening the film at 5PM with a live panel including Levi, Tom Danielson, and Patrick Dempsey. Tickets are still available and we’re not charging to watch the trailer as often as you’d like.

Parking
Yep, we’ve got it. A finite amount of spaces, the number of which is less than the number of riders in the GranFondo. A fair bit less, actually. If all of you drove to the start on your own, we’d all become the most ironic traffic report of all time. Try this instead:
1. Ride to the start of the ride. Santa Rosa is mostly flat and full of bike lanes. The Finley Center is accessible by the Santa Rosa Creek trail which bisects the entire west side of town. We’ll have valet bike parking and secure bag check with showers afterward, so bring a change of clothes and a towel–they’ll be waiting for you afterwards.
2. Ride with a group from a local shop. Don’t want to go your own way? Check out our list of local shop rides to the GranFondo start. Make it to these shops, pick up last minute supplies, and get a guided escort to the Finley Center. See above for reference to bike valet and bag check.
3. Use public transit. Buses in Santa Rosa have bike racks and there’s a transit center literally across the street from the start line. It doesn’t get much easier. Check out the transit schedule here.

We’re also asking you to respect local businesses who may not want a couple of thousand skinny, clicky-footed people parking in their private lots displacing customers. Some will have put up signs helping to explain this. Regardless of signage, help us be a good neighbor and do your best to use alternatives.

The FondoSonoma Festival
Plenty can be said about our post-ride Festival, but the crucial thing to understand is that it’s not simply for the riders. We wanted to throw a party for everyone, on or off the bike, that celebrates the bike and what it means to ride that bike here in Sonoma County. So throw the kids over the shoulder and come on out. We’ve got tons of food, drinks, big delicious beers from New Belgium, live music, loads of exhibits, plenty of kids activities, and a presentation by Levi and company.

Camelbak/Road ID/Zipp
In the heated moments leading up to the event, we can’t forget to thank a few more folks for their help. We wouldn’t be the Fondo we are today without the support of Camelbak, Road ID, and Zipp. Road ID, with their commitment to peace of mind in the pursuit of athletics, has been a big part of this event from the start, as has Camelbak and their fervent wish that we all make hydration a way of life. Of course, we’re pleased to have the speed weaponry of Zipp Wheels on board this year, supporting riders out on the course and beyond. Thanks tons to you all; we’re pleased and honored to have you along for the ride.

Carbon-lite Swag Bag
Rather than pre-load your recycling bin with paper and coupons, we’re hosting all the offers and discounts from our fine sponsor partners on our e-swag bag. Look for information in the rider musette you get at registration and then drink in the goodies from First Endurance, Road ID, and more.

And while we’re talking about the rider musette, our good friends at SpiderTech are throwing in some of their just-this-side-of-miraculous muscle tape in there. Review the step-by-step instructions on the package or watch this before applying. These nice folks will be around Friday and Saturday should you need an assist in application.

Mobile Fondo
Thanks to support from our pals at RadioShack, we put together a nimble little app that neatly keeps you on course and informed on all things GranFondo in 2012. Shimmy over to www.levisgranfondo.com whilst using your mobile device and you’ll be prompted to add us to your home screen. Do that and boom, that’s it, you’re in. No groaning downloads, no platform conflicts. Once loaded, you can track yourself on course, take in the days schedule, knock around FAQs and browse (or even better, add to) our photo feed.

For those of you bereft of a mobile device (or the latest one everyone’s lusting after), please do see our mobile device experts at your local RadioShack. Let these guys put the whole world in your pocket.

Notable Attendees
Every rider at the GranFondo is a notable attendee, dammit, and we mean that through and through. But some folks have a touch more name recognition than others and, judging by the popularity of US Weekly over National Geographic, we figured we’d mention that two-time Olympic Time Trial gold medalist Kristin Armstrong is lining up this Saturday.

Patrick Dempsey’s right behind her, but he’s going to have to ask Barry Bonds to scoot over. Tom Danielson said he’d make sure Lucas Euser got there on time. Thankfully, Mike Richter got the memo and he’s leaving the Stanley Cup at home this year. Mark-Paul Gosselaar “bash”ed his way into the 2012 event, and as far as we can tell, Rebecca Rusch is doing the whole Gran route on a mountain bike.

Oh, right. And Levi. Remember him?

–FINI–

• Volunteers are still needed. Benefits abound. Enlist here!
• Missed an issue? Previous newsletters live behind this curtain. No excuses!

The kids are back in school, or at least they should be. And while their young eyes are cast towards the front of the class, let us take advantage of the distraction. All summer, they looked up to us: responsible adults, trudging off to the salt mines while they laid around the house dining on Funyuns and Rock Monster Super Star Guru Hype™ energy drinks. While they lounged, not cutting the grass, not cleaning the garage, not cooking dinner, we filed TPS reports and watched our tans fade.

Our time is coming. Let the kids toil in gym class (they still have gym class, right?). We’ve got something looming on the horizon.

For us, it’s all summer in a day.

The Keys That Turn The Locks:
Start Line Staging
Specialized Bikes
Rest Stop Info and Etiquette
SAG Vehicles
Clothing and Weather

Line ‘em Up
This one is tough for a lot of folks, but it’s also crucial to the GranFondo experience. We all go forward together at 8:00 AM sharp; best get yourself positioned to maximize being part of a great wave of bike-mounted humanity. The crucial bit of information: be realistic. We’ll have signs throughout the staging area that indicate where you should line up according to your route and the estimated miles per hour you’ll be traveling. These signs are not that useful if you think that, because you went 24 mph for 20 minutes with a tailwind on a flat stretch of road on that lunch ride last week, you can maintain that over 100 miles and 9000-plus feet of climbing. If in doubt, stage further back. You can always work your way forward out on course, but you don’t want to be the rookie that’s causing a bottleneck of experienced, frustrated cyclists behind you. And a bottleneck is not the kind of thing one wants to see on the road, either on bike or in a car.

In short: check your results from last year, take a long hard look in the mirror, and line up according to your ability, not your hopes. You’ll get there, we promise.

Specialized Bikes
New to our partner list this year are the great folks at Specialized. We’re long-time fans and are proud that they’ve joined hands with us this year. Their commitment to the bike stretches back to the first touring tire they produced back in the mid-70s and culminates every day in bikes like the ones a certain team rode to victory at this week’s World Team Time Trial Championship. They’ve been cranking out innovation from their Morgan Hill headquarters that will pay considerable dividends on the winding roads of the GranFondo. We look forward to you not taking our word for it.
We thank them for everything they’re doing for cycling and for our event. Look for them at the FondoSonoma Festival. They’re the ones in the big red crate. And we do mean big.

Cyclist, Rest Thyself
We use the words “rest stop” to describe our roadside support just like some people call the Sistine Chapel “well-appointed.” Expect mechanical support, medical help, bike racks, EFS drink, Clif products, fruit, water, PB+Js, chips, portables, and views, oh the views. You’ll see them about every 20 miles or so and they’ll be very well-signed. There are some rules, however:

• Come into the rest stop. Don’t linger at the entry/exit points. People are coming in hot and leaving warm and, while there’s nothing wrong with you hanging out and socializing at all, please do be considerate of those moving through the stop quickly. This also keeps congestion on the road down, which is nice for those who are using that road to, you know, move forward. This includes emergency vehicles, who have places to go and people to help.
• Be housebroken. We have to say this every year and we can’t believe that it always comes up. We have portables all over the route. Use them. You never know what series of events a wayward micturition may set into motion. That hillside, after all, really tied the room together.
• Skip Occidental. If you all are riding the Medio or Gran routes, the rest stop in Occidental is not designed to support the crush of riders heading out onto their respective routes. It’s there for your return trip back through town later in the day OR for Piccolo riders as they turn back from there towards Santa Rosa. The next rest stop is just seven short downhill miles away for the Medio and Gran riders. Should you need a stop, please do it there, not in Occidental. Any Piccolo riders at the Occidental rest stop should expect a delay of 20-30 minutes getting back on course, so that the large pack of Medio and Gran riders can move through town. All the more reason to stage back a bit, we thinks.

SAG, not TAXI
We’ve got a fleet of on-course support vehicles to address needs along the course, including SRAM cars complete with Zipp wheels. These folks are there to provide the service it takes to get you back on the road and moving as quickly as possible. That said, they’re not there to ferry your stuff back to the start when you don’t feel like carrying those heavy, cumbersome  arm warmers around anymore. We support your self-sufficiency, but we can’t act as cargo vehicles for 7500 pairs of knee warmers. Nor do we allow private SAGs on the route. It’s hard enough maintaining a safe event with our own moto and SAG fleet; please don’t compound that by putting an unnecessary vehicle out on course. Besides, we hate black-balling people, even when they earn it.

That said, we fully expect folks will not be able to continue on their chosen route for a host of reasons and we’re pleased to be able to offer transportation back to the FondoSonoma Festival, but it’s not on order. On-course SAGs will get you to a pre-arranged rest stop, where you’ll wait for a bus back to the Finley Center. This process takes time, so do make those calculations when you’re trying to decide if you can go no further or if there is indeed still some gas left in your engine.

Skin Coverage 
Sonoma County is sun-drenched vision of warmth and radiant comfort. Except when it’s a rain-drenched fog bath with a creeping cold that settles in the marrow and will not budge without the careful application of brandy and down comforters. While we expect the former, we plan for the latter. The first two years of this event was clear, warm, and crystalline. The last year was moody and damp. Two different, fantastic experiences, but only if you’re ready. Bring knee warmers, arm warmers (or pick up GranFondo ones), and vests. Maybe you won’t even bring it on the ride, but if you do, it all fits in a jersey pocket when it warms up. This year, we’ll fire up the hot water for beverages at the rest stops if the fog does roll in too hard. There is no bad weather, after all. Only bad clothing.

And of course, the beats we keep on dropping:

• Tickets are still available for the Santa Rosa premiere of The Levi Effect!
• Deadline to qualify for fundraising incentives extended! Sign up, help the cause and win cool stuff!
• Volunteers are still needed. Benefits abound. Enlist here!
• Missed an issue? Previous newsletters live behind this curtain. No excuses!

Fall’s here. And we don’t mean that we checked our calendars, saw that Labor Day weekend happened, and put on sensible sweaters. No, we walked outside and all at once the air smelled crisper and lighter, the sky hung lower, and the colors seemed to jump a bit closer towards our eyes. And in that instant, summer shuffled off to Australia and a season far more complex and suited to our mood arrived.

But lest this degrade into a *shudder* poetry reading, we must snag this subtle shift and turn it to our advantage. Autumn in Sonoma County is prime riding season, providing a dodge for grape-toasting waves of heat and gifting us (more or less) clearer days out on our breaking shores. This be the weather that pulls a human off the couch and begs them to stay out an extra hour, daycare/boss/acupuncturist be damned.

Let’s fill our sails together and pick up a little speed over the next few weeks, eh?

The Wind Beneath Our Wings:
GranFondo Merchandise Clamp Down
Transfer Fee Increase Looms
Nissan’s Innovation for Endurance
Fundraising Incentives Deadline
The (Training) Cherry On Top
Late Hour Lodging Strategies

Geegaws and Doodads
The GranFondo merchandise section of our website is closing down on September 16th. After that, you’re going to be subject to the capricious breezes of chance at the event’s merchandise mega-tent, but you will be saving a dollar or two in shipping. Should you want GranFondo ride gear, active apparel, and lingerie, supplies are limited, so don’t procrastinate your purchases once you get in-county. Wait, what?

Transforming Transfer Transactions
Transfer fees are going up to $50 starting tomorrow, so if you’ve been trolling the GranFondo Book of Faces to buy or sell, the time to close that out is soon. All transfers close on September 23rd; we cannot accommodate any transfers the week of the GranFondo. Remember, you can always ride a shorter route than the one for which you registered, but not a longer one. More info is on our refunds and transfer page or you can shoot us a note at levisgranfondo@bikemonkey.net

Nissan-Official Automobile of Levi’s GranFondo

We’ve had a long association with Nissan at Levi’s GranFondo and we’re extremely grateful for the fleet of support they provide to the event, both on-course with theirvehicles and off of it at our FondoSonoma Festival. They’re running their show from their Innovation for Endurance page, where they’re not only offering training tips from the likes of Chris Horner and other athletes, but also giving away free Altimas, Sentras, and other Nissan model vehicles. Which beats your humble newsletter scribe’s first (and heavily missed) Nissan.

Nissan will be at the FondoSonoma Festival and leading you out Saturday morning as our official pace car. Thank ‘em for their support when you see ‘em. We sure do.

The Charge of the Charity Brigade
Our fundraisers are an amazing mini-army of people. We’d like to publicly thank them for all their work gathering dollars for our charities and beneficiaries. We’d also like to reward them appropriately. We consider our incentive program to be one of the best out there and if anyone wants to snag that next level of goodies, you’ve got until Sepembert 12th to do so. Should you be a bit closer to your younger years, the deadline for qualifying for the incentives under our 23-year-old and under Positive Tracks fundraising program is September 23rd. Not only does this program have an additional incentive beyond our regular ones (yep, an all-expense paid trip to the Dempsey Challenge), but it matches the fundraising donation through the Positive Tracks organization. You read that right. If you’re 23 or under, your fundraising counts double.

So get going already, willya? Times a-wastin’.

Train Coming Round The Bend
If you’re off on your training for Levi’s GranFondo, either you were born amazing, you’re kind of sweating it a bit, or you just don’t care about training, like this guy. We welcome all three types here and don’t feel we need to offer much advice to the first or last person in this group. However, dude who’s biting his nails a bit because his wattage numbers are off scale from this time last year, relax. You got this thing. Get in your last big ride or two this week, then start that tapering. Shake the legs out on a few rides that don’t have huge climbs or big miles. Get on the mountain bike and have some (more) fun. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, and try to adjust your dietary intake to a slightly less active riding schedule. Enjoy some of that extra free time and start worrying about other things. Like finding a place to stay in Sonoma County. Aaaaaand on that note…

Last Minute Lodging
There are more people in the GranFondo than there are beds in Santa Rosa. It’s a fact of cold, hard math, just like the tendency of the human creature to procrastinate, despite knowing better (Aside: This newsletter is getting written at 2:00 AM Monday morning. We’re all just the same.). If you’ve not booked a room yet, please do so, but when you do, we suggest looking at towns outside of Santa Rosa, but still convenient to the Fondo start/finish line. Sebastopol, Windsor, and Rohnert Park are not far off and, in some cases, could make for a great warmup ride to the start. Even Petaluma’s not that bad of a drive, being only 20 minutes from the start line. Point is, there may be no room at the inn as far as Santa Rosa’s concerned, so focus that hunt for turndown service in the surrounding environs. We wish you good fortune in this regard.

And of course, the drums we keep on beating:

• Tickets are still available for our Festa del Fondo gala dinner and the Santa Rosa premiere of The Levi Effect!
• Volunteers are still needed in hundreds of different places. Benefits abound. Enlist here!
• Missed an issue? Previous newsletters live behind this curtain. No excuses!

Last time around, we threatened to slaughter your noggins with news of the Fondo. We tossed words around like “cannon fire” and “salvo.” When we said “looms mightily,” most of you braced yourself for a steely onslaught of information, data, and well-packaged jabber. Muscles tensed and, neck parts bulging, you all inhaled sharply in anticipation of our attack.

And then we kinda just shut up.

But there’s a good reason. We’ve been setting into motion all the constituent pieces of America’s best day out on two wheels. We keep waiting for it to be easy and that day ain’t showed up yet. There’s lots to discuss in the next few weeks, and we’ve no intention of being shy. Now that the pieces are in play, all the promised inbox projectiles will be coming, fast and furious.

We swear. This time.

Tickets to Ride:
RadioShack
Road Bikes Across The World
Step Right Up: Transfer Period and Upgrades
New News En Route

Presented by RadioShack

The Only Way To Fly (Or drive. Or hovercraft.)
There is a simple beauty in traveling light. You’ve seen these people in airports: serene, elegant, moving from the AppleChiliBee’s to the gate with great ease. A nice goal, no doubt, but damnit, we ride bikes and bikes are big.

As such, we’ve arranged for you to send your bikes to us and skip the faith-based handover of your fave bike to the handle-with-care-maybe folks at the airlines. Hit up our bike shop partner, NorCal Bike Sport, who are waiting in the wings to rebuild that bike of yours better than ever before. Shoot them an email and let them know it’s coming their way. Or skip the whole shipping thing altogether and rent one of their Specialized bikes from them for the weekend.

Either way, make life easy for yourself. Travel light and be the envy of the ballasted all around you.

Swap Meet
Life is a funny old thing. We see so many of you converge on us (virtually) for a spot in the GranFondo every January. Between injuries, weddings, and babies (seriously, these are far and away the top three), a solid quarter of you all have to bail. Thankfully another horde is banging at the gates trying to get in, each of you meeting at our Facebook page. The good news: the transfer period has been extended to Sunday, September 23rd. Bad news: you’ve only got until Monday, September 10th before the transfer fee goes up. More info is on our transfer page.

Those of you looking to ride a longer route than the one for which you originally signed up need to switch with someone doing that route. Those of you looking to ride a shorter route can do so up to and including event day. No one’s forcing you to ride more than you want. But we are asking you not to put an extra strain on the event and diminish fundraising by gifting yourself a day-of upgrade. Besides, everyone’s going to give you the hideous stinkeye if they see the wrong color number plate out on a route for which they paid full price.

Flout the Route!
Last year, our cutoff policy (nope, this one) had some people raising eyebrows. Because we respond well to elevated forehead hair, we considered some options and revised it thusly: instead of being turned onto the Medio route in Duncans Mills at 10:30 AM, should any Gran route rider find themselves at the intersection of Fort Ross Road and King Ridge Road after 11:00 AM, you’ll be directed up Fort Ross rather than King Ridge. This gets you some great climbing, expansive views, and follows the Santa Rosa stage of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California while also dropping you right into the midst of the Gran riders at the Ritchey Ranch. We figure this keeps smiles on faces while also getting riders back home safely before dark. Since this turn is just over thirty miles from the start and you’ll have just under three hours to pull it off, we figure anyone shooting for the Gran route should make it to this point without too much trouble. Especially when drafting 7499 other people.

Additionally, we’re offering the gravel option again this year. Those of you who waited for the other suckers to try it first in 2011 can now safely enjoy the thousand mile grins that last year’s guinea pigs cultivated on Willow Creek Road. It’s closed, it’s gravel, it’s got a couple of steep pitches, there are big potholes. It’s also car-free, stunningly beautiful, and nothing looks better on a road bike then dust and mud. The best rides in Sonoma County incorporate dirt. Why shouldn’t you all get that chance?

And of course, the drums we keep on beating:

Tickets are still available for our Festa del Fondo gala dinner and the Santa Rosa premiere of The Levi Effect!

Volunteers are still needed in hundreds of different places. Benefits abound. Enlist here!

Missed an issue? Previous newsletters live behind this curtain. No excuses!

Hey good lookin’. Long time, no talk. What say we dust the broom and commence to brass tacks?

The pipes are warming here at Bike Monkey Global Towers and the freon that typically runs through our veins is thawing nicely. Expect to see a rising tide here in newsiness and general information targeting systems, all aimed at growing your cranial capacity in advance of the best ride on the continent. Levi’s GranFondo looms mightily upon all our horizons and we’re hurtling toward it at speeds that our training regimes can scarcely maintain. Especially ours.

For now, we keep it (more or less) short and sweet:

Apparent Apparel

GranFondo kits (that’s jerseys, shorts/bibs, arm warmers, and socks, for you newbies) are on the backs of the men and women who occupy the front lines of fashion-forward freewheeling. When you see them out, ask for the shirt off their back. When they colorfully suggest where you should go, consider grabbing your own setup at our store. We’ve got rad new posters from our pals at Clif over there as well, so consider decking not only your backside, but also your halls, with GranFondo majesty.

What’s Mine Is Yours

Transfers are wide open and trading is in full effect. Connections are being made on our Facebook page. Got one? Need one? Handle it there, much like the parking lot of a Dead show. Gran and medio routes have been sold out for some time, but between unplanned injuries, pregnancies, and weddings (Related occurrences? You decide.), transfers abound. Rules for such transactions live over here.

M.I.A. Monkeys

For those of you who rode with us in 2011, we sent each and every one of you a partial subscription to our fine quarterly Bike Monkey rag just for taking part in the GranFondo. For those of you wondering where your next issue is, we’d humbly refer you to the word “partial” in the previous sentence. Re-up digitally or physically and continue to adorn both your brain and your coffee table with the beating heart of the bicycle.

The Levi Effect Premieres!

Our new documentary on a certain American cyclist, The Levi Effect, is hurtling toward completion and we’ve rented the biggest theater in the county for its premiere on the Friday before the GranFondo. We’re selling tickets to this grand gala showing via our website and fully expect to fill all 1400 seats. Levi will be on hand as will flashbulbs, red carpets, Joan Rivers, and the story of a kid from Butte whose impact on those around him outpaced mere race results. Not sure what we’re talking about? More information and all the trailers are at levieffect.com. Can’t make the premiere? We’re giving this thing away via iTunes not long after the GranFondo for free. Yeah, you read that right. It’s on us and available at any screen around the world with an internet connection.

Great Stuff For Great Causes, Courtesy of Great People (that’s you, by the way)

Last year, fundraisers at Levi’s GranFondo raised over $75,000 dollars for our beneficiaries at Forget-Me-Not Farm, LIVESTRONG, and the VeloStreet cycling initiatives program. That’s on top of the over $130,000 we raised through registration and merchandise, all of which is no small potato. For all those of you unlucky enough to have missed out on last year’s fundraising, you can now be vindicated: with a deadline over 8 weeks away, fundraising for 2012 is off to a rollicking start. Sign up for your very own fundraising account here; drink in our incentives, including gear, hotel stays, and a ride with El Patron himself; and check out the fundraising tools and ideas we’ve got to assist you in your merry crusade.

Just like last year, we’re offering a special incentive for those of you 23 and under. Any one of these younger fundraisers will have the chance to win a trip to Maine for the Dempsey Challenge while DOUBLING your contributions through a matching donation from Positive Tracks. Should you still be scratching your head, go on and shoot a note to our fine fundraising coordinator Stephanie. She’ll get you straight, guaranteed.

And we’re off and running. Look for more updates in the coming months on topics so diverse, as to make rainbows blush. We’d say a teary goodbye here, but we’re just getting started. Consider the Fondo spark struck. Flames to follow.

Volunteers are still needed in hundreds of different places. Enlist here!

Missed an issue? Previous newsletters live behind this curtain. No excuses!

Leipheimer, after sustaining a broken fibula in a car collision during a training ride in Spain, plans to announce whether or not he will participate in the Amgen Tour of California two days prior to the start of the first stage.

Professional road cyclist and three-time Amgen Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer is continuing to weigh his ability to race after he was struck by a car last month while training in Spain. This collision caused a fracture of the left fibula, but did not require surgery. While the bone is healing readily, the muscles surrounding the fracture typically take much longer to repair themselves. While Leipheimer has been sighted training on his home Sonoma County, California roads, he is still determining whether or not his injury will be prohibitive in the face of the challenging competition found in the Amgen Tour of California.

The Amgen Tour of California, billed as “America’s greatest stage race,” is starting in Leipheimer’s hometown of Santa Rosa, California, and has been enthusiastically welcomed by area businesses, local governments, and sports fans of all stripes. Hosting the overall start of the Amgen Tour of California represents a considerable boon, not only to the local economy, but, more importantly, to the identity of Santa Rosa as an unparalleled cycling destination. As the local presenting sponsor of this stage of the Amgen Tour of California, Levi’s GranFondo is proud to support this event in our community and wishes Levi the best in his recovery, regardless of whether or not he choices to compete in this race.