Ironman coming to Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa is close to inking a five-year deal to move one of the nation’s premier endurance races - the Ironman Vineman series - from Windsor to downtown Santa Rosa.

If the deal is approved by the City Council tonight, Santa Rosa would host two of the popular triathlons each year, one in May and the other in July. Both would start at Lake Sonoma instead of the Russian River and end with thousands of athletes descending on downtown.

The events could prove to be a windfall for local businesses, with an estimated annual direct economic impact to the city of $13.6 million.

“This is massive for us,” said Raissa de la Rosa, the city’s acting economic development manager. “It’s bigger than the Tour of California and the GranFondo combined.”

The deal would be a marked departure for the popular homegrown triathlon series that longtime Vineman race director Russ Pugh sold last year to the Florida-based World Triathlon Corp., which owns the Ironman brand.

One major change is the name. Vineman will be dropped and the new event will be renamed Ironman Santa Rosa for the full triathlon and Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa for the half distance.

The course will also be completely different, abandoning the Russian River swim - which at times was shallow enough that competitors could walk - in favor of a more distant Lake Sonoma start.

“Everything is going to be different as far as the course,” said local triathlete and trainer Dave Latourette. “It’s not going to be the same race.”

After a 2.4-mile swim for the full triathlon or 1.2 miles for the half, athletes will hop on their bikes for a 112-mile ride (56 for the half) on winding Wine Country roads to downtown Santa Rosa.

There, athletes will transition to their full or half marathons, with most runners likely leaving from the reunited Old Courthouse Square or Juilliard Park on an out-and back course to the west before finishing downtown, de la Rosa said.

The city and the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce have been working closely together for months to attract Ironman to the city. The city’s experience in putting on the Amgen Tour of California professional cycling race played a role in helping demonstrate to the Ironman organization that Santa Rosa would prove an excellent host and venue, said Jonathan Coe, chamber president.

He called the event a “home run” for the city because it will bring people in who will spend significant amounts of money, require limited expenditures by the city, and “put the city on the map.”

“I think the economic impact is multiple orders of magnitude larger than the Tour of California,” Coe said.

Unlike tour cyclists, which the city and sponsors must pay to house, Ironman athletes pay their own way, Coe noted. About 5,000 athletes are expected to particulate in the full and half triathlons, bringing an average of 2.6 people along with them and spending an average of four nights in the city, Coe said. They’re expected to spend an average of $2,720 each, de la Rosa said.

And unlike professional cyclists, who race out of town the very next day, triathletes tend to come early to preview the course and hang around afterward.

“Frankly, it’s very difficult for many of them to move the day after the race, so they can’t run out of town,” Coe quipped.

Triathletes are a great demographic for the city to target because they’re generally high-income, college educated visitors who have a high interest in returning to a destination either to participate again or just visit, Coe said.

Coe has significant experience with Ironman events, having attracted one in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, when he headed that city’s Chamber of Commerce.

“Ironman, we found in Coeur d’Alene, is a really remarkable event,” Coe said. “It brings hundreds of competitors to town who are the kind of demographic, from our tourism and marketing side, we want to reach.”

It’s estimated the city will have to spend about $500,000 per year on the two events, including $200,000 in fees paid directly to Ironman. The balance will be spent by the city on law enforcement, public works, vendors and miscellaneous costs.

In the future, the full Ironman would take place in May, when the temperatures are cooler, and the half in July. Next year is the exception, however, since the date for full Ironman was already set for July 29.

The first race next year would be the Ironman 70.3 on May 13.

Latourette said there is no question that triathletes, who come from all over the nation to compete, will provide a boost to local businesses.

“For the community, as far as economic impact, it’s phenomenal,” Latourette said.

When the race started at Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville, many of the athletes stayed in town nearby, preferring to walk or ride bikes to the start line, he said.

Now, given the lack of facilities at Lake Sonoma, most athletes will probably make Santa Rosa their base, he said.

Personally, Latourette said he loved the beauty of the river start. He predicted some athletes with a lot of history with the Vineman course may be saddened by the change. But there’s also a lot to like, he said, including that the first couple miles on the new bike course are going to be pretty fast as athletes drop down into Dry Creek Valley.

“There are so many positives,” Latourette said. “The fact that the race is still in the community is good for us and good for the triathlon community locally.”