10 Links to 2015 DD Articles, Photos, & Videos 2015 DIRTY DOZEN RESULTS The 33nd annual Dirty Dozen was held on Saturday, November 28th. Despite terrible weather conditions - CLOUDY with all day 45 degree F light rain, we had an impressive turnout of 244 riders (including 17 women)! Of these 244 cyclists, 129 (53%) were rookies (first timers). We had 46 riders over 50 years old including 7 over 60. There were 12 (all male) riders under 20 years old. Of the 30 riders to score men's points, 8 were rookies, 3 were 50+, 4 were teenagers, and one was a woman! Back again (for the 4th consecutive year) was Gene Nacey's (Cycling Fusion) LiveStream live web broadcast which allowed fans to follow the DD at home, and know what time we would be getting to each hill. Thanks Gene. Morgan Baker won the first hill Center/Guyasuta, but with two 2nd place finishes, Eric Lundgren rode into the lead after the 2nd hill Ravine/Midway {For safety, the 2nd part of this hill (at the T) was changed from the old left onto Sharpshill Rd. to the new right onto Midway Dr. - finishing at the fire department parking lot}. On the 4th hill High/Seavey, the slippery left switchback turn crashed some of the leaders in point(s) scoring positions. Leader Lundgren (with 23 points), Baker (18), Eddie Grystar Jr. (16), Regis Ricketts (14), Ian Baun (9), and 16 year old Danny Pellechio (7) all either crashed or stopped, and had to go back down to the bottom to redo this hill. 10-time consecutive DD winner (a record that may never be equalled) Steve Cummings (Stevo) won the hill, and rode into the lead. Winning two more hills, Stevo led the rest of the day, and had the DD mathematically won with two hills left! This was his record 11th win out of 13 finishes! 17 year old Willem deBoer placed 2nd without winning any hills. 53 year old West Virginian Gunnar Shogren (1991 DD winner) placed 3rd, and became the new oldest hill winner after winning the two toughest hills - Suffolk/Hazelton/Burgess & Barry/Holt/Eleanor! This broke Billy Kanarek's 12 year old record by 3 years. The "podium" photo of the top 3 men finishers (Willem, Stevo & Gunnar) at the top of the last hill spans 3 generations of DD riders! Defending champion 18 year old triathlete Ian Baun won two hills and placed 7th. 9 time DD finisher Mark Nicoll won 3 sprinter hills (Berryhill, Pig Hill & Canton) in very dominant fashion, and placed 9th. About a month before the DD, Nicoll became the first rider to ride up 37% grade Canton Ave. using just one leg (his right leg) on a mountain bike! The first rookie rider was Shawn Lister, placing 10th. Waiting around atop hills and at the food stops in such horrible weather began to take its toll on some riders. Despite being in 5th place overall with 32 points atop of the 8th hill Sycamore, Eddie Grystar Jr. dropped out. He had been as high as 2nd place overall (after the 2nd hill). Also dropping out with scored points were 8 time DD starter Andy Seitz (6), Alex Ticu (5), and Aaron Shelmire (3). 11 year old Luke Gunnett became the new youngest finisher! Making every climb on his first attempt, 285 pound Don Snow broke his own heaviest finisher record (from two years ago) by 25 pounds! Attila Domos started on a handcycle, but quit after the 7th hill as he was running out of daylight. The women tie a piece of pink tape around their handlebars to distinguish themselves from the men. In the women's field of 17 (of which 9 were rookies), Stefanie Sydlik led the entire day, and tied Betsy Shogren's 6 year old record of most points scored - 64 out of 65 possible! At the bottom of the 8th hill Sycamore, Stef dropped her chain & had to go back to the bottom for a redo. Having to close about a minute gap on leader Lesley Butler, Stef (setting a new power record) barely won the hill, but kept alive her chance of a perfect score victory. However on the 9th hill Canton, Stef (in yellow top 33 seconds into video) crashed on her first attempt and Lesley won the hill. Making it on her second attempt, Stef still got 2nd on Canton. With 12 second place hill finishes, Lesley placed 2nd overall her second year in a row. The real battle in the women's race was for 3rd place. Rookies Anna-Lena Kempen and Kara Weld each started scoring points on the 3rd hill Berryhill, and were tied going into the last hill Flowers/Kilbourne/Tesla. Kempen beat Weld up this hill to finish just one point ahead in 3rd place overall. Here is the "podium" photo of the top 4 women finishers (Kara, Anna-Lena, Stef & Lesley) at the top of the last hill. After the first 4 hills, rookie Sandra Leary was in 3rd place with 11 points, but she failed to make it up the 5th hill Logan. Unicyclist Danielle Millett (knows Stef Sydlik from rowing) finished her 3rd DD in 5th place. After a real heart breaker last year (bike trouble prevented her from finishing), 6th place finisher Lori Paul (atop Hazelton) was so happy to have made all of the hills this year. Riding her 3rd DD, Stef Burch was a riding marshal (ranger). 6 women made it up all of the hills. Of the 9 women to score points, 6 were rookies. A former world class rower who took up cycling after an injury, 30 year old Stefanie Sydlik moved to Pittsburgh for her dream job of being a PhD Chemistry professor at CMU. The perfect mix of good genes with a hard work/ride/train ethic, Stef's the best woman climber I have ever seen in the Pittsburgh area! Stef wanted me to ride the entire DD route with her on one weekend day for each of the 4 weeks before the DD. On the first week, she had no problem riding up the longer hills fast, but needed 7 attempts to make Canton. Chris Helbling, my good friend Jonathan Pratt, & I theorized that she was strong enough to score men's points on the longer DD hills - especially the last hill, on which she floated away from us except for one week when Jon Pratt barely beat her. To punish herself for this (on another day), she did the last steep section (Tesla) of this hill 10 times in a row. Only a few men have posted faster Strava times than her up this entire mile long hill. So on actual DD day, I was somewhat surprised that she hadn't scored any men's points for the first 12 hills, but knew that she still had a good shot going into the final hill. About 4 miles before the bottom of the last hill, I blow the whistle early so that we are in road race conditions during the flat stretches along the Monongahela River Valley. A 3 man breakaway (Hill winner Cory Kuhns, Anthony Grinnell & Regis Ricketts) got away, and had about 45 seconds or so on our lead group when we turned right onto Flowers to start up the hill. 3 of the 4 top places on the hill came from the break. Gunnar managed to pass Ricketts for 3rd place, and Stef finished 5th place (6 points) becoming the first woman to ever score men's points! Had the break not happened, she may have finished 2nd overall to Gunnar. I had announced that if a woman scored men's points, she would not "steal" away any points from men. I just happened to be the 10th place man (11th overall) up this hill to claim the last point. On my men's points matrix, even though Stef and Willem deBoer each scored 6 points on this hill, Stef beat Willem up the hill. These 6 points were enough to put Stef in 20th place overall (among the men)! Although 2015 was technically her rookie DD year, Stef started well prepared with 4 entire pre-DD rides in her legs. Stef told me that on these pre-DD rides and the actual DD, there was too much rest for her between the hills. Ideally, she prefers longer, steadier mountains climbs lasting for 30 minutes or longer. On the 10th hill Boustead, I finished in 10th place just ahead of Stef in 11th place. This reminded me of a similar situation on one of our pre-DD rides on the same hill - After I finished just ahead of her, she said I "dicked" her (getting beaten by a man) to which I told her this is the converse of being "chicked" or getting beaten by a chick {"girled" (beat by a girl)}. She had the last laugh though, after beating me on the actual DD. A couple of weeks before the DD, Red Bull & Audi filmed this commercial on Canton Ave. (closed off with dirt & snow on top of the cobblestones). I was worried about Canton being ready in time for the DD. After the shoot, it had been cleaned off so well that Canton Avenue (despite being wet) was fairly easier this year - riders could use the full width of the road. This meant way fewer crashes and less people needing multiple attempts, but to hard core DD purists however, this meant some of the mystique of Canton (the steepest DD hill at a 37% grade) was gone. To be an official DD finisher, you must ride up every hill without stopping or crashing. You must have continuous forward motion UP the hill! You can weave back and forth as long as you are continuing to go UP. As soon as you start to go level or back down the hill, you are disqualified. You can go back down to the bottom of the hill, and try again as many times as you want. In the early days of 20 or fewer riders, I was able to keep track of who made all the hills, but once the DD grew bigger than this, I was unable to police it anymore. Now there exists an honor system where riders keep track of themselves. Of course when it comes to scoring points and setting DD records, I still have to keep track of this. I want to recognize the staff who help me run the DD. Thanks to Maura Spillane, Monica Reisz, Dr. Patty George, Shequaya Bailey & Acadia Klain for doing registration in the morning. Here is a photo of Nina, Monica, Patty, Bailey & Maura. Thanks to Carol Moore & Nina Wilczek for officiating (scoring points) atop hills again. Thanks to Ron & son Eric Lutz, and Dave & daughter Izabella Shaffer for doing the food/drink stops - Millvale's Riverfront Park on the Allegheny River at the bottom of the 5th hill Logan, and at the top of the 9th hill Canton Ave. Here is a photo of Izabella, Dave, Ron, & Eric atop Canton. Thanks to Jenn Grieb & the Three Rivers Rowing Association for opening up their Millvale Boathouse building for us to use the bathrooms at the lunch stop. Here is a photo of Stef Sydlik & I in the bathroom. Thanks again to Brian Wolovich & Millvale Borough for opening up the library. Thanks again to Steve Mentzer for loaning me his 10 gallon orange coolers he uses for the Rachel Carson Trail Challenge. Thanks to Glenn Pawlak & Big Bang Bicycles for sponsoring the DD again this year. Driving the BB white support van were Steve Kurpiewski & Samson McHugh. Thanks to returning sponsor Eat'n Park and Brooks Broadhurst who made sure there were hot drinks at the start, and plenty of Smuckers Uncrustables peanut butter & jelly sandwiches at the food stops. Thanks to the Eat'n Park employees who came out to marshal the busy intersections near their restaurant on the course - At PA Rt. 8 & Middle Rd./Saxonburg Blvd. in Shaler Twp., and at Crane Ave. & Banksville Rd. in Beechview. Thanks to returning sponsor Adam Closkey & Red Bull. Thanks to 3-time DD finisher Erin Yanacek for bringing aboard new sponsor NuGo energy bars. Erin (now a NuGo employee) & her family members were out on some hills playing trumpet and other instruments. Thanks to Gary Baun (Ian's father) for driving the clothing/spare equipment vehicle again. Thanks to 6-time DD rider Chris Helbling for doing such a wonderful job as head marshal again! Other riding marshals (rangers) were 10 time DD riders (Joe Ross, Ted King-Smith & Jim Logan), and Stef Burch, Russell Manski, Neil Donahue, & Jason McCullough. Thanks to the rest of the marshals: Ken Kaszak, Mikhail Evstiounin, Cliff Spiegel, Stuart Strickland, Acadia Klain, Liz Mowry, John Arita, Justin Schell, Sarah Quesen, Faris Kindilchie, & Janet Kikta. If I left anybody else out, please tell me who you are. Thanks again to Fineview Citizens Council board president June Lloyd and Debbie Reay & her son Eli for placing encouragement signs, setting up water, Gatorade & snacks atop of Suffolk/Hazelton/Burgess - the single toughest DD hill! 1,417 people have ridden (started) the DD over the past 32 years. 22 riders graduated to my 3 or more DDs ridden list. The riders with the most DD's riding this year were myself (with 32) and Stevo & Bryan Routledge (each with 13). I was unable to ride the 2008 DD because of back surgery. This ended my record 25 consecutive DDs streak. Currently, Steevo has the longest consecutive DDs ridden streak at 13 years. Bryan Routledge has ridden the most DDs (13) without ever scoring any points. Congrats to all the riders who conquered every hill. To those who didn't, train harder next year and bring a lower gear. If you have say over 50 DD photos in a Facebook album and would like to share them, please send the link to me at DanChew@yahoo.com and I will put them in my media links section. Both DD winners received free entries into the 2016 Mt. Davis Challenge compliments of race director Jim Sota. Dirty Dozen Points/Roster Matrix . . Hill #  . STARTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  9 10 11 12 13 Total 1 Steve Cummings . 10 6 10 10 6 9 8 8 4 8 . . 79 2 Willem deBoer . . 9 9 . 7 . 9 9 9 5 9 6 72 3 Gunnar Shogren . . . 1 9 5 10 6 4 8 7 10 8 68 4 Eric Lundgren 9 9 5 . . 2 8 10 . 5 3 5 4 60 5 Morgan Baker 10 . 8 . 3 9 . 4 6 . 9 . . 49 6 Regis Ricketts 5 5 4 . 6 . 7 3 1 . 4 7 7 49 7 Ian Baun 2 7 . . . 8 . . . 10 10 4 2 43 8 David Short Jr. 4 3 . 7 8 4 4 . . 7 . 1 . 38 9 Mark Nicoll . . 10 . . 10 . . 10 . . . . 30 10 *Shawn Lister 7 . 7 8 4 3 . . . . . . . 29 11 Jonathan Pratt . . 3 5 5 . 5 1 . 6 1 3 . 29 12 *Anthony Grinnell . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9 17 13 *Jeff Glaser 3 1 . 6 1 . . 5 . . . . . 16 14 Danny Pellechio 6 . 1 . 7 . . . . . . . . 14 15 Frankie Ross . 2 . . . . . 2 7 . . . 3 14 16 *Austin Horse . . . . . . . . . . 6 6 . 12 17 *Cory Kuhns . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 10 18 Brian Trdina . . . 4 . . . . . . . . 5 9 19 Chris Helbling . . . 3 . . . . 3 3 . . . 9 20 *STEFANIE SYDLIK (woman) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6 Caleb Wakeley . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . 6 22 Danny Chew . . . . . . 2 . . 1 . 2 1 6 23 Xavier J. Szigethy . . 2 . . . . . 2 . . . . 4 24 Larry Weber . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . 2 *Fril McBride . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . 2 26. *Hassan Beydoun . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . 1 27. Eddie Grystar Jr. DNF 8 8 . . 2 1 6 7 . . . . . 32 28 Andy Seitz DNF . 4 . 2 . . . . . . . . . 6 29 Alex Ticu DNF . . . . . . . . 5 . . . . 5 30 Aaron Shelmire DNF . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . 3 31 Bryan Routledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Ryan Borcz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Jeff Grimm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Ed DeLuca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Jim Logan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Doug Riegner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Dan Riegner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Andrew Reay 39 Matt Pascal 40 Kevin Krakovsky 41 Mark Runco 42 Chris Jackson 43 Chris Eisenberg 44 Sean Brady 45 Tim Daigle 46 Matt Viverette 47 Mike Helbling 48 Ken Mowry 49 Brendan Cusick 50 Scott McConnell 51 Jonathan Cornibe 52 Colin Sandberg 53 John Jameson 54 Matt Grove 55 Scott Sander 56 Chuck Baith 57 Joe Cornibe 58 Ben Cammarata 59 Mark Rushbrook 60 Andrew Hollis 61 Aaron Bliss 62 Brian Mejia 63 Chuck Kozora 64 Andrew Hall 65 Jeremy Kirchin 66 Jason McCullough 67 Gary T. Fisher 68 Alex Myers 69 Neil Donahue 70 Andy Lapatka 71 Cao-Ly Tran 72 Brian Swehla 73 Xavier A. Szigethy 74 Michael Masarik Sr. 75 Don Snow 76 Andy J. Fortna 77 John Yanen 78 John B. Joyce 79 Daniel Tkacik 80 Matt Immekus 81 Jamie DeWeese 82 Robert Mitlo 83 Phillip J. Hawkins 84 Ian Conway 85 Eugene Diefenbach 86 Timothy End 87 Steve Helm 88 Edward Leonard 89 Eric Lantzman 90 Bill Graves 91 Bob Burdalski 92 Nicholas Manta 93 Walt Impellicceiri 94 Stephen Porter 95 Adam Issenberg 96 Rich Petyk 97 Frank Lee 98 Joseph G. Fraas 99 Timothy Adzima 100 Zachary Haubach 101 David Thistle 102 Eric Lyon 103 Raymond Abraham Roy 104 Chantz Wain 105 Scott Elliott 106 Brian Gaudio 107 Eliot Rogers 108 James R. Campbell 109 Joshua Wygonik 110 Jon Conley 111 David Levine 112 Patrick Murray 113 Russell Manski 114 DANIELLE MILLETT 115 STEF BURCH 116 LESLEY BUTLER 117 LORI PAUL 118 LISA WEISS 119 SARA PETYK 120 BECKY SCHNEIDER 121 HELEN RODRIQUEZ 122 *ANNA-LENA KEMPEN 123 *KARA WELD 124 *SANDRA LEARY 125 *DENISE MATHENY 126 *WENDY ROBISON 127 *JENNIFER DVORSKY 128 *DONNA McNUTT 129 *RACHAEL MARKWELL 130 *Ben Hedin 131 *Loren Gabriel Miller 132 *Todd Thombs 133 *Wayne Grassel 134 *Allen Wheeler 135 *Brian Porter 136 *Joe Kantz 137 *Jack Holden 138 *Luke Reich 139 *Richard L. Hoover 140 *Dan Tasse 141 *Dustin Dinh 142 *Joseph Tasse 143 *Carl Hubel 144 *Eric Konvalin 145 *Sungdo Han 146 *Peter Doyle 147 *Darius Staples 148 *Caleb Simak-Hoover 149 *John Rangos 150 *Mark Susany 151 *Daniel Owen 152 *Wil Kratz 153 *Justin Tan 154 *Ravi Patel 155 *Neil Quinn 156 *Keith Cumpston 157 *Tim Zak 158 *Connor Brem 159 *Evan Brem 160 *Hans Ruppenthal 161 *Jonathan Springer 162 *J. Livingston MacLake 163 *John Weld 164 *Fernando DeLaCalle 165 *Jeff Bruchez 166 *Paul Rakus 167 *Alejandro Ramos 168 *Mark Skinner 169 *John Rohrer 170 *Carlos Colmenares 171 *Mike Sutter 172 *Brendan McKinley 173 *Bruce McDonald 174 *Kevin Kunkel 175 *Jeff Helsel 176 *Oleksandr Poliakov 177 *Keith Grapes 178 *David Fahrion 179 *Ryan Hamilton 180 *Matt Baumer 181 *Dan Slowey 182 *Joe Lewinski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 *Andrew Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 *Chris Garrett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 *Kris Meekins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 *Keith Gunnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 *Luke Gunnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 *Pat Polsunas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 *Isaac Cajka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 *Gene Katapski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 *Michael J. Masarik II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 *Tyler M. Early . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 *Chris Peltzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 *Jason Bailey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 *William P. Lucas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 *Steffen Voss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 *Aaron McCarter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 *Eric Ripper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 *Jonathan Gonzalez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 *Robert Dahl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 *Cajer Gong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 *Andrew Tiffin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 *James Dvorsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 *Jason R. Zollinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 *Jason P. Hank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 *Michael J. Borza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 *Tom Florian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 *Gordon Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 *Gabriel Piriz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 *John M. Welsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 *Robby Breckinridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 *Kevin Hughes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 *Walter Haim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 *Daniel Berlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 *Ian Buggey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 *Aaron Kovach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 *Tim Foley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 *Shane Montgomery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 *Andrew Helm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 *Daniel Steffy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 *Lien Chin Wei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 *Michael Crocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 *Nicholas Rossello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 *Drew Dorko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 *Ed Brewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 *Lucas Marsak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 *John Wolf McClurg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 *Peter V. Cristobal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 *Matt Sciulli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 *Nabil Zeineh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 *Dave Norton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 *Andrew Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 *Michael Henao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 *Brian James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 *Joshua Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 *James Abbott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 *Jon Fogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 *Nathan May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 *Attila Domos (HC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 *Ethan Derr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 *Pierce Gerhart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 *Kyle Irwin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Joe Ross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Ted King-Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Total  .  . Hill # * denotes a first timer or rookie ALL CAPS denotes a woman rider If two riders end up with the same point total at the end, the tie breaker is who has more wins, 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, & 5ths if needed.   Hill Wins Hill Wins  Steve Cummings  3  Mark Nicoll  3  Gunnar Shogren  2  Ian Baun  2  Eric Lundgren  1  Morgan Baker  1  *Cory Kuhns  1   .