Race/ride around the lake with Coeur d'Fondo
The Coeur d’Fondo is nearing its fifth straight run around Lake Coeur d’Alene, and race director Isaac Mann can’t wait.
He was an integral part of the creation of the event, and now happily spends time molding and tweaking every facet of the product.
Now as nearly 1,500 cyclists prepare to tackle the five different distances offered, Mann has most of the decisions for this year’s event in the books.
During a recent walk around downtown Coeur d’Alene, Mann was able to share his joy, ambition and future goals for North Idaho’s only fondo event.
“When we first started, my group of friends really wanted to ride around the lake, and we needed a reason to do it,” Mann said. “We got the first one up and running, and thought we’d get 250 to start, and wound up with 850 in that first year (2012).”
Mann said they are seeing participant counts between 1,200 and 1,500 in recent years. “We are just starting to aggressively reach out, now that we have a known product to offer.”
Mann said in the beginning, the idea was to lean heavily on the tranquility of the route.
“Anybody who has ridden around the lake knows there are roughly 6,000 feet of climbs on the course. I have seen fondos in other parts of the country where they have to make something fun out of the ride to make up for the lack of scenery, but we have 100 miles of coastline to ride beside, so that makes it awesome.”
But it’s not all fun and games. Mann and his staff did the leg work of getting funding, and then endured the process of gaining permit from the city, counties and state before anyone ever turned a wheel on the course. They also have invested back into the event, to hopefully give each athlete something more than just memories to look back on after the event.
“We had to make sure we met with all the different agencies, to ensure everybody knew what was going on.
“We have made sure that everyone who finished the two longest distances gets a quality medal, and we have not cheaped out on that. We are also investing to make sure everyone gets a nice quality T-shirt and some type of swag that is made only for us and we’ve invested in six aid stations along the course, each having a fully stocked inventory of items.”
Mann said the stations need to be on par with the biggest station you would find at any event, and have them supplied with ample foods, unique items such as extra salty, extra sweet foods and everything in between to help athletes avoid the “bonk” that can arise from such a long, strenuous event.
“We also heard feedback from athletes wanting Coke products at the final aid station, so we now have cases of Coke at the ready for those who need it.”
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Mann said The Coeur d’Alene Resort has pulled out all the stops, providing breakfast burritos for all participants. “We used to give them out at the first aid station, but we had athletes who were just getting warmed up and they were either grabbing the burrito and stuffing it in their backpacks and then were riding off or skipping that station altogether.
Mann said many cyclists would contact him, saying they missed the burritos, and asking where were they.
“So what we did is move them to aid station No. 2, so that everybody can enjoy it, even those athletes just getting off the boats (for their event) and riding the 45-mile route.”
Mann said they have also spent the money to make sure they have three large cruise boats bringing groups back from Harrison.
The Coeur d’Fondo benefits the North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation, and Mann is proud of his group’s ability to provide that support.
“The Centennial trail is really the reason why this area holds what it holds — everybody talks about it,” he said. “When we got together as a design team, one of the things we wanted do is make sure this is an event that keeps going. So in order to make that happen, you have to get the income to build it into something that works at cost — that can support itself financially. “We needed the working capital to start, so we went to the trail foundation board and said, ‘Hey, take a risk on us, float us our first year’s capital.’ Most of us who have a financial investment in it, we saw our rates would be low, and we could get a lot of donations that first year, so we made it happen.
“And then the feeling was after that first year, it would help build into the capital campaign for the trail foundation.
Mann said he basically froze his salary until the event earned over and above the target numbers. “Now I believe we will make those numbers and be consistent, and (this event) will be a significant portion of the (NICTF) budget among the three large fundraising events they hold each year — the Coeur d’Alene Marathon, the fondo and the Ales for Trails.”
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Mann said getting the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association on board was paramount to the success of the event. “When we started, we met with Terry Cooper of the Downtown Association, Mike Gaertner of Vertical Earth, Bill Reagan of The Coeur d’Alene Resort, Mike Ward of Coldwell Banker Realty, and we all got together and said, this is an event that has the potential all the way around — it’ll gain exposure for real estate companies, exposure for the local bikes shops and downtown as a whole.”
One of the things that Mann said came from that first conversation was the expanding benefit to groups within communities along the route.
“We turned it into something that reached more than just Coeur d’Alene. When you have to ride 108 miles, you are going to reach out to other areas. So we have been able to put back into the high school down in Harrison, the Rotary Club in St. Maries, Heyburn State Park.”
Mann compared the logistics of his event with the popular Ironman Coeur d’Alene. “They have 2,500 athletes here at their event, and the course doubles back on itself, so they get 112 miles (on the bike route) with around 50 miles of total course, when I have to do all 108 miles. I have to make sure the volunteer staffing, and I have utilized (Ironman’s) model, reaching out to Lake City and Coeur d’Alene high schools, as well as Lakeland High. They have each brought one of their sports teams on board, and they do things like man the bike corral, or hand out finishing awards at the end. A team from Kootenai High mans an aid station, and the park rangers from Heyburn man another.
Mann said it has been a great opportunity to invest all around the lake.
“It’s been great working with Vertical Earth, which runs technical support for a section of the course, and Coeur d’Alene Bike Company and Cycle Metrics have jumped on board to run tech support in other areas.
Mann said that spreading commerce around the lake has been important, too. “We are stocking the aid stations with $2,500 of quick food for people to eat as they go along, and we don’t have to buy all that from (Coeur d’Alene) so I have been going into the local communities and saying ‘Hey, I want to buy here at your local story, I want that commerce to come through here.’ So many companies down in those areas are actually a part of those aid stations — selling those products to me, and then giving them out to the athletes, which is a great community builder all the way around.”
Wary that many athletes have limited budgets, he does what he can to help ensure everyone that wants to ride the event is able to.
“When we first started doing events in the local area, we had the Post Falls Duathlon, the Cd’A Tri, the CDA Marathon — those 3 big events,” he said. “Now you have a major sporting event almost every weekend of the summer. When you have the addition of the Coeur d’Alene Marathon at the beginning of the season, the IM 70.3 in June, and the full Ironman in August, people are spending their discretionary income, and maybe other income their spouse doesn’t know about. I’m mindful of that, and I’m making sure that we try to get a discount for the locals, and we also love teams — tri teams, whole exercise clubs and gyms that cluster together, for the camaraderie and the motivation to keep doing these things, so if you come to us and say ‘We have 10 riders,’ I try to make sure they get a discount so that way you can all get together, pool your funds and get to the event.
Last year, Mann said a bus showed up from southern Colorado and arrived the day before the event. “They had ‘Cd’A Fondo or Bust’ written on their bus, just a group of neighbors and I got them discount codes.
Mann said lots of Canadians come down, as well as people from Portland, Seattle, Bend and all throughout the region. But so far, no participant limits are in the works.
“Right now the limitations are safety factors. If we can safely bring all the athletes down Sherman Avenue, out to Higgens Point, over to the Blue Creek exit, and if we can scatter them out enough, then we are still safe,” he said. “Once you put your physical assets into play, adding more athletes just means you add more food, more water, but you don’t have to add more volunteers — those people are already going to be there.
Mann said a seeding process may be needed at some juncture, for safety reasons. “We might have to have people show how fast they finished their last century, in order to be at the front of the start. For those who don’t want to do that aggressive of a fondo, they could seed themselves back at the start to keep congestion low. “All that can be done. The timing will take care of itself. In the next two years, we could see numbers in the 2,500 range, and that amount would be every bit as much as what a full Ironman or 70.3 is currently.”
Mann said many larger fondos have numbers in the 5,000 participant range. “And those are in areas that have a whole lot more traffic than North Idaho. So if I use that as my barometer, I think we still have some room to grow.”
Another future addition could bring even more excitement to the event.
“We are watching the race model, and will be mindful of its success,” he said. “One thing we may add is a very prominent rider — someone in competitive cycling, or maybe some type of celebrity of sorts, who can bring more traction to the vent.
Mann would like that person to have a cause, since he says they can afford to share the event to raise money for something else worthy.
“We’d like to maybe turn it into a 2-or 3-day event. We could have a banquet the night before the ride, with the celebrity and their cause as a focal point, and it’d be great to head into a direction like that which makes sense.”
Mann said the drawback of a 108-mile course is also a virtue. “You have no clogging, no stagnation, no closing of city streets all day long. Some athletes are done by the time they get to Harrison, and they come back on the boats and enjoy the Octoberfest, which is really growing in downtown. It has become a destination at the end of the race, and it’s a perfect shoulder season event for the town. The area is used to having 2,000 people there for a street fair-type event and fill the streets and sidewalks.”
Mann is also proud that Parker Subaru is the lead sponsor of the event, and also provides the event vehicle. He said while the majority of the route is not spectator friendly, there is a don’t-miss moment. “If you come down for the start of the fondo and stand on the side of Sherman Avenue and watch 1,500 cyclists start out — that is a parade you’ll really have to come and see. Then go do whatever you have to do for the day, and come back at 4, have a brat and a beer at Octoberfest with all the folks down here. The store owners all up and down Sherman will have their places open as well.”
Info: www.cdagranfondo.com