Bad Luck Denies Spokane Man Title Again

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Bergquist takes third after missing turn

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

The first thing Michael Bergquist wanted to know when he checked in for Sunday morning's Valley of the Sun Triathlon was who his competition would be.

"Is Kelsey Backen here?" he asked race director Candie Turner.

Well, yes, the defending champion was here, but he's injured and not racing.

"What about Chip Cooper?" Nope, the 2000 Valley of the Sun champion broke his collarbone last week and is out of commission.

Bergquist, an Air Force staff sergeant stationed near Spokane, threw down his equipment bag in a little mock frustration. "Well, hell, then I'm not racing."

Yes, he was. But, as it turned out, his biggest competition at the Valley of the Sun - for the second straight year - was bad luck. His biggest challenge was simply staying on course.

A year ago, he and Cooper were way out in front of the field when, perhaps three miles into the bicycle stage, Cooper made a wrong turn. Bergquist, two yards back, simply followed him.

"I figured, hey, he's won this race, he knows the course," Bergquist said.

Not well enough. The wrong turn and the two extra miles the two pedaled cost Bergquist perhaps six minutes and - since Backen ultimately beat him by less than five - possibly the race.

On Sunday, Bergquist was out in front by himself when, at an intersection monitored by a traffic officer, a pickup truck turned in front of him.

"The cop's waving the truck through, and I'm swerving to go around the truck, and he's blocking the place I'm supposed to turn," said Bergquist, who was also blocked from seeing the course marker indicating the proper direction. When the officer didn't wave him in the other direction - where the course veered to the right - he continued to veer to the left. Way left.

"I went up the way up to 64th (Street)," Bergquist said. By the time he came barreling down Cowiche Canyon Road back onto the race course on South Naches Road, he had lost as much as 10 minutes and was behind some 70 racers.

He caught up and passed all but two, Kendall Townsend and Stephen Fisher, both of whom had assumed he was still way out in front of them.

"We saw him up there up there ahead of us on the bike," Townsend said. "We kind of figured that was the first-place guy. Then when we got on one of the straightaways and couldn't see him, we just thought he was too far in front"

Added Fisher, "I thought, man, he must be smokin' up there."

No. Just smokin' mad.

"It's pretty aggravating," said Bergquist, who had been hoping to win the Cascade Triathlon Series, which pays $200 to the best male and female cumulative finishers in the Valley of the Sun and Whisky Dick triathlons.

"I know they can't control where a truck turns in front of you on the course, but they (race officials) have got to do a better job of preventing this kind of thing. It's frustrating, You pay $50 (entry fee) trying to win a series that's worth $200. The way I see it, I should have won this race last year and I should have won it this year."

Instead, he's finished third twice.

Turner, the race director, found Bergquist after the race to commiserate and to apologize for the problem.

"Michael," she said. "Next year, you race free."

"How about this year: Bergquist retorted.

"You got it," Turner said. "Well," Bergquist said with shrug, "that makes me feel a Iittle better."