The Longest Quarter-Mile: Getting From Water to Wheels

The transition from the swim to the bike is usually an easy one at triathlons, but many of the 1,500 competitors treated it as if it were a fourth leg Sunday at Crystal Cove State Park.

The quarter-mile stretch to the bicycle staging area at the Pacific Coast Triathlon takes competitors from the beach up a steep, concrete sidewalk, which rises nearly as high as it is far, to the parking lot.

This trek, perhaps one of the most grueling in sprint triathlons, took an early toll on most during the third annual event. It forced others to alter their strategies.

Australian Chris McCormack, who lives in Carlsbad, credited the hike with helping him win the overall title in 55 minutes 53 seconds. McCormack came out of the water at the same time as three others, but was the first to reach his bike.

A two-time world champion, McCormack had the ability to take an early lead during the half-mile swim, but chose to conserve energy for the hill climb. He sensed his pursuers didn’t follow similar strategy, deflating their leg strength during the bike.

“I really worked that run from the water to the transition area,” said McCormack, who beat Carlsbad’s Erik Burgan by just more than a minute. “I think that hurt some of the guys’ legs and that’s why they blew up on the bike.”

Jay Palchikoff, 44, a lawyer from Corona del Mar, took the opposite approach when it came time to hit the incline. Palchikoff finished sixth in his age group and 56th overall but, like many, decided charging the hill at full speed was not a realistic option.

“I walked the bottom of it,” said Palchikoff. “You don’t get anywhere if you try and run it.”

Pat Gleason of Huntington Beach also used the section wisely. Gleason won the 35-39 age group in 1:02.28 and placed 11th overall, the top finish among Orange County competitors.

Gleason, a general contractor, won his age-group title by defeating Chicago’s Jason Engel for the first time. Gleason tackled the first transition at full speed and figured that was where the race was won, since his combined splits were only six seconds faster than Engel’s, yet 15 seconds faster in the transitions.

“Engel always beats me out of the water but has a slower transition,” Gleason said. “Two quick transitions were the difference in the race.”

AGE-GROUP BATTLES

It has been 20 years since Russ Jones ran a 2:17 marathon, but the San Juan Capistrano resident showed Sunday he still has plenty in the tank after winning the 45-49 age-group title and placing 24th overall in a time of 1:05:20.

Jones trailed Darryl Kollai of Cleveland and Tom MacNiven of Wainscott, N.Y., by two minutes heading into the three-mile run, but returned with a 10-second victory over Kollai after completing the leg in 17:51. Jones had the 154th best swim time of all competitors, but posted the 18th-fastest run.

“[Kollai and MacNiven] were good swimmers and good bikers, but I was able to run them down,” said Jones, a 45-year-old letter carrier. “For me, triathlons are a catch-up game.”

Bob Stipp of Anaheim finished fourth in the same age group in 1:07.56. He hoped to maintain a nice cushion on Jones during the bike race, but found that section tough to navigate.

“I thought I could beat [Jones] if I had two minutes on him after the bike, but the course was so clogged with people who didn’t know the rules of the road,” said Stipp, a construction site manager. “There were a lot of first-timers that made negotiating the course difficult. They were all over the place.”

James Major of Mission Viejo and Cavan Cuyler of Corona del Mar took the top two spots in the 17-19 age-group division.

Major, who graduated from Santa Margarita High a year ago, is race director for the UC Berkeley triathlon club team, which placed fourth at the collegiate nationals held at the Wildflower Triathlon last spring in Lake San Antonio, Calif.

Major trailed Cuyler by 55 seconds at the start of the 12-mile bike race, but returned nearly a minute ahead and finished 37th overall in 1:07.29.

“I saw another bike in the transition area and I thought it might be [Cuyler’s],” Major said. “But then someone said the bike had been sitting there the whole time. That’s how I knew I was in first heading into the run.”

Cuyler, a senior at Corona del Mar High, said he used his water polo training to get ready for the race.

“I didn’t get on a bike until the last two weeks,” said Cuyler, who was 65th overall. “With running and water polo, that pretty much took care of getting in shape.”

FINISHING TOUCH

The hills may have been nasty and the crowds unbearable at times on Sunday, but competitors couldn’t get over the array of treats, particularly cookies and fruit, awaiting them at the finish line.

“I’ve been doing these since 1988,” Stipp said. “And the food at the end of this race was the best of all triathlons.”

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