Larissa Connors Claims Top Women's Spot at the 2025 Mega Hopper

Larissa Connors rolled into the finish of the 2025 Mega Hopper after 36 hours and 33 minutes of relentless riding, claiming 5th overall and first among women in the audacious 416-mile self-supported ultra. The 39-year-old from Santa Rosa conquered the absurdly ambitious linkup of nine legendary Grasshopper routes on her Santa Cruz Juliana gravel bike, finishing on October 18th with a performance that blended grit, strategy, and what she called pure magic. “I had to wear the GravelStoke jersey to channel all my gravel stoke and it worked!!!!!! ❤️” Connors said after her epic ride. But the jersey was just the beginning of this story that unfolded across two sunsets, star-filled nights alive with wildlife, and the unforgettable sight of breaching whales off Meyers Grade. "That was legit a fairy tale dream," she reflected. "All my favorite places, riding thru the night... seeing the sun set twice on Willow Creek in 2 days."

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Larissa Connors at the 2025 Mega Hopper epic gravel adventure starting in Occidental, CA in Sonoma County, Photos by Larissa Connors and Gravel Bike California.

The MegaHopper is no ordinary gravel event. Though 87% paved, the route's 40,419 feet of climbing and strategic dirt sections including Mt. Vision, Bolinas Ridge, Willow Creek, and Old Caz—demand a proper gravel setup and unshakeable resolve. The course tours the greatest hits of Northern California's mixed-terrain riding through Sonoma, Marin, Lake, and Napa Counties, threading together iconic routes like King Ridge, Fort Ross, Super Sweetwater, Super Skaggs, and The Geysers. With no aid stations, no support vehicles, and no outside help beyond what's commercially available, riders navigate solo through technical descents, punishing climbs, and miles of exposure where self-sufficiency isn't just a rule, it's survival.

Since 1998, Miguel Crawford's Grasshopper Adventure Series has defined what gravel cycling could be before "gravel" was even a category. The Hoppers were the first of their kind, sparking a movement that blended bike types and terrain to create challenges about self-discovery and resilience rather than simply racing to a finish line. The Mega Hopper represents the ultimate expression of that philosophy—not a permitted event or organized race, but an idea, a challenge, and an invitation to dig deeper than you knew possible across some of the most legendary roads the region has to offer.

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