Annual Triathlon Could Be Tripped Up

After 10 years, the Orange County Triathlon may have run its last race in the city.

Criticizing race organizers for poorly running the triathlon, city staff has recommended that the City Council on Monday not allow the event in 1997.

Trash strewn along the race route on Olympiad Road for two days was the most visible of the problems left from the June 23 triathlon, City Manager Dan Joseph said.

“The place was a mess,” Joseph said. “The barricades were just pushed to one side of the road, there were paper cups all over the ground. It looked terrible.”

City staff generally had trouble dealing with the event organizer, Anaheim-based Pacific Sports, Joseph said.

“There were a lot of other problems, such as our sheriff’s deputies having to transport [the competitors’] bicycles,” he said. “When we’d ask them about these kinds of problems, things got argumentative.”

The annual competition had been organized for many years by the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The center dropped the race in 1995 after a major sponsor pulled its support. Pacific Sports then took over.

Event organizer Mike Bone conceded that the company mishandled cleanup operations after the event.

“There is no hiding from that; we apologize for the mess,” Bone said. “It wasn’t left for two days. We cleaned it up as soon as the situation was brought to our attention” on Monday morning, the day after the triathlon, he said.

“We are very embarrassed by what happened, but it is very, very correctable,” he said.

Bone cited his own conflicts with city staff, including requirements for traffic control equipment such as barricades, cones and temporary signs, which he said drove up the cost of the triathlon.