Ironman CdA difficulty factor increased

The fifth Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene race will feature a significant change.

Call it a major face-lift. The heart of the 112-mile bike portion of the three-discipline event has been altered. No longer will participants ride through Post Falls and into Washington near Liberty Lake.

The race now wholly sits in Coeur d’Alene and Hayden Lake. The bike route meanders north into Dalton Gardens and through Hayden and around Hayden Lake.

It’s a significant change in that the previously relatively flat bike course now includes several hills.

“I love this course, but they’ve upped it another level,” the inaugural Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene champ Michael Lovato, 33, of Boulder, Colo., said. “It’s even more scenic. It’s tougher, and it showcases this area really well.”

Not all the pros are as infatuated with the change as Lovato. Vikto Zyemtsev, who captured the championship in 2005, the last time the men raced in CdA, would rather ride on the old course.

“I loved the old course. The old course had just two steep climbs,” Zyemtsev, 34, who lives in Ukraine, said in broken English. “The new course is very hilly and has a lot of turnarounds.”

On the new course, bikers face the first significant climb just north of the Hayden Lake Country Club on Lakeview Drive. Several follow along English Point and Hayden Lake roads.

Just like the previous course, bikers will do two loops on the new course, including the traditional lakeside route along Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Some participants believe the new course could add as much as 30 minutes to participants’ times. There could be stretches where the amateurs are rendered to walking their bikes up the hills.

Even for the professional athletes, the new bike route will be slightly more challenging than the former course.

Participants are warned to be on the look out for deer darting across roads, especially north of Hayden Lake.

The favorites?

Lovato and Zyemtsev are the co-favorites with a handful of other names mentioned as dark horses.

In the inaugural race in 2003, Lovato captured his first Ironman championship. Two years later, Lovato and Zyemtsev were leading the field with about 13 miles remaining in the run when the Ukrainian broke away.

Zyemtsev still lives in Ukraine and is an active member of the country’s military. He came over in May to finalize training for the CdA race. He’s living temporarily in Los Alamos, N.M.

Others who could challenge the favorites are: Jasper Blake, 33, of Victoria, B.C.; Tom Evans, 38, of Penticton, B.C.; Bryan Rhodes, 34, of Taupo, New Zealand; and Swen Sundberg, 33, of Herzogenaurach, Germany.

Weather forecast

Typically, race-day weather has been hot to hotter. But the forecast for today’s race appears relatively mild. Partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low 70s are expected.

The race begins at 7 a.m.

Day jobs

Most of the Ironman participants have 9-to-5 jobs. And many listed their occupations on their applications.

Some put down a serious response. But there are the predictably amusing responses, too.

Here are a few of the less-than-serious occupations of a handful of entrants: porn star, pain junkie, ski doctor, pro jump-roper, cat rancher, monkey juggler, pro procrastinator, and oompaloompa.