Leipheimer film to open in SR

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

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BIKES IN THE MOVIES
Film: “The Levi Effect,” an 87-minute documentary film by Carlos Perez, will be shown at 5 p.m. Friday night (Sept. 28) on multiple screens at Roxy Stadium 14, 85 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. $20. The VIP screening, already sold out, features a live panel discussion on site, with Levi Leipheimer, actor Peter Dempsey and others, to transmitted simultaneously to screens in the some of the theater’s other auditoriums. levieffect.com.

The Fondo Sonoma Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 29) at the starting and ending point of Levi Leipheimer’s GranFondo ride — Finley Community Center, 2060 W. College Ave., Santa Rosa. Live music includes the Church Marching Band at 1 p.m., The Crux at 2 p.m. and Baby Seal Club at 3 p.m. Free. levisgranfondo.com.

Two and a half years ago, cycling promoter Carlos Perez set out to make a movie about his friend and fellow Santa Rosan, world-class cyclist Levi Leiphemer.

Levi Leipheimer (Crista Jeremison/PD)

Perez, publisher of Bike Monkey magazine, called his film project “The Levi Effect,” aiming to show not only how Leipheimer’s fame has affected Sonoma County, raising its profile as a mecca for cyclists, but also how Leipheimer’s career and his life here have affected him.  The movie makes its debut Friday (Sept. 28) at Santa Rosa’s Roxy Stadium 14 theater downtown, on the eve of Levi’s fourth annual GranFondo ride Saturday (Sept. 29), expected to bring 7,500 cyclists to Santa Rosa from all over the world.

“The film is not just about the GranFondo, because when I had the idea to do the film, I looked deeper than that. I wanted to tell the story of how it came about,” Perez said. “That meant talking about the origins of the GranFondo, which really started with Levi’s aspirations to become a professional cyclist when he was a 13-year-old boy.”

Perez and Leipheimer, who settled in Santa Rosa in the late 1990s, created the GranFondo in 2009 as a celebration of cycling, not a race. Leipheimer is a three-time Tour of California winner and placed third in the Tour de France in 2007.

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Last modified: September 26, 2012
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