If
two riders have the same point total at the end then the tie breaker
is who has more wins, 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, & 5ths, etc. if needed.
2019
Summary and acknowledgements
The
37th annual Dirty Dozen (DD) was held on Saturday, October 26th. The
date was moved up a month from its traditional Saturday after
Thanksgiving to greatly reduce the risk of ever having to cancel the
event because of snow or ice, and so I don't freeze while watching it
from my wheelchair. Under cloudy skies the starting temperature was
43° F and the high went to 57°, with rain starting just after noon.
Before the 9 am start, I had a moment of silence for 38-year-old DD
rider (2015 & 2016) Jason Zollinger, who on October 1st was hit
and killed by a car while riding. His partner Danielle Shoup spoke
and had a moment of silence for Tom Haykin and Austin Fike—also
killed by cars while riding in the past two months.
The DD
founders, my brother Tom Chew, Bob Gottlieb and I, have only ridden
three DDs together—1983, 1988 and 1989. So for the first time in 30
years we were all together, and before the start each of us spoke
about the amazing growth and evolution of the DD. DD head marshal
Chris Helbling presented to Stephen “Steevo” Cummings and me
lovely jerseys with our 11 and nine respective DD wins on them, with
the years we won. Three hundred and forty-two riders started in seven
groups leaving at five-minute intervals. I used to blow a whistle to
signify the start of each hill. After my accident, my friend Jonathan
Pratt took over this duty. Since Pratt couldn't ride this year, Chris
Helbling blew the starting whistle for each hill. A huge congrats to
Jon and Chris for doing so much for the DD!
In the open
competition, defending champ Will Cooper did not ride.
Twenty-two-year-old Ian Baun won his fourth DD in a very convincing
manner. Leading the entire way, he won eight hills and had five
second places. He set the record for highest men's point total (with
a 10-place points system) scoring 125 points, and had it
mathematically won after 11 hills. The real battle was for second
place. Alec Ratzell was just 14 years old when he rode his first DD
in 2012. This year, he beat rookie-of-the-year Daniel Uhranowsky, who
won three hills, by just one point. The third-place finisher from
last year, Nick Glavac, was in fourth place with 36 points after the
first seven hills, but a flat tire on the eighth hill, Sycamore
Street, caused him to quit. Matt Waller had scored 31 points by the
time he got to the ninth hill, Canton Avenue, but he failed to make
it up the wet cobblestones of Canton. Ryan Nye had 13 points when he
got to the 11th hill, Welsh Way, but he was so exhausted that he
stopped just shy of the top and was disqualified for failing to redo
the hill. Three 60+-year-old riders scored points. Sixty-one-year-old
John Brockenbrough extended his oldest-points-scorer record by
another year with three points. Sixty-year-old David Hearn scored
four points. DD founder sixty-year-old Bob Gottlieb scored one point.
In the women's competition, which was again run as a separate
group, Stef Sydlik led the entire way and won nine hills to take her
fourth DD victory, the most for women, but by her slimmest
margin—just four points. It was the most competitive women's field
ever. For the first four hills, the top four places were the same: 1.
Sydlik; 2. Sharon Perry; 3. defending champ Shaena Ulissi; 4. Vera
Wu. On the sixth hill, Rialto Street/Pig Hill, a truck was in front
of the women, and Sharon stayed back at a safe distance, getting only
five points for sixth place. This put Sharon and Shaena in a tie for
second place. They went back and forth after this, with Shaena
beating Sharon for second overall by just four points.
On
Canton, Sydlik needed five attempts to make it on the wet
cobblestones, so she scored no points, but kept her lead. In all four
of her DD wins, she has never made Canton on her first try. In 2017,
Sharon Rana—now Sharon Perry—got to Canton in second place behind
Sydlik, but failed to make the hill. This year with lower gears,
47-year-old Sharon made it on her first try. Rookie Vera Wu got to
Canton in fourth place with 56 points, but she failed to make the
hill despite trying a record 12 times and falling back two groups.
Fifty-one-year-old rookie Susan Musante placed fourth with 78 points.
Suzanne Kinski, who marshalled the women's group, placed fifth with
58 points. Fifty-two-year-old rookie Mary Kowalski, who had never
seen any of the hills, finished in sixth place with 44 points, and
became the new oldest female points scorer.
Eleven of the 15
women in the women's competition made all of the hills, as did Paige
Anderson, riding in the Enthusiast group. Twelve women making all of
the hills is a new DD record! Coming all the way from flat
Alexandria, Minnesota, Angie Johnson dedicated each hill to someone
affected by multiple sclerosis, so they kept her fighting. The last
hill was for her father Terry, who died from MS seven years ago at
age 55. She finished in eigth place with 23 points. Jillian Beveridge
scored 42 points, but failed to make two hills. Janel Nye scored 18
points, but failed to make Logan. Jen Damon, the only woman to finish
last year—outside of the women's competition—rode in the
competition this year and finished in 10th place with five points.
Steevo Cummings extended his record DD-riding streak to 17
years, the most of any active rider. Last year Jeremiah Sullivan
finally finished the DD on a heavy Healthy Ride bike after three
tries. This year, he rode a tandem (weighing about the same as a
Healthy Ride) with Tyler Quinn. Sullivan said the tandem was much
easier than the Healthy Ride, and while still not a walk in the park,
felt a bit like cheating. On their first time up Canton, they snapped
their chain. They fixed the chain and tried again. But on their
second and third tries, their tandem malfunctioned again. While
inspecting their tandem at the bottom of the hill, they noticed they
were missing a bolt in one of the rear dropouts, leaving the dropout
attached to the frame with only a single bolt, which had it pivoting
on that bolt. Since they didn't have any bolts to fix it, and didn't
feel that it was safe enough to continue, they exited the ride at
that point.
The tallest rider to ever do the DD is 6' 10"
tall Frank Curl. While his first three attempts to finish the DD on
road bikes came up short, he was back this year on a mountain bike.
He finally made all the hills, but felt like he was cheating using a
mountain bike with super low gearing. At 280 pounds, he came close to
breaking Don Snow's heaviest-finisher record of 285 pounds.
The
after-party returned to East End Brewing, where the awards ceremonies
were also held. East End Brewing was a great location for this,
especially now that they can prepare food on-site.
Thanks to
my niece Caitlin and her other uncle John Wachter for driving me
around all day. Thanks to Alan Orlansky and Cory Cannon of Biketek
for driving a technical support vehicle for the lead group. Thanks to
all the marshals and rangers for keeping all seven groups safe.
Thanks to the numerous other volunteers, many of whom are featured in
the Photos section.
Photos
DD
founders Bob Gottlieb, Tom and Danny Chew at start.
Registration
Crew: Abby Ritter, Monica Reisz and Maura Spillane. Not in photo:
Mimi Colaizzi.
Food
Crew: Ron Lutz and son Eric, David Shaffer and daughter Izabella and
son Ezra.
Dave
Norton delivering 600 bananas from Trader Joe's.
Open
Competition Scorers (even hills): JonathaniPratt
and brother Paul.
Open
Competition Scorers (odd hills): Cliff Spiegel and Mikhail Evstiounin
(not pictured).
DD
Climatologist Neil Donahue and Danielle Shoup.
The
Women's Competition Group atop the eight hill, Sycamore Street. From
left to right: Jillian Beveridge, Julia Crytzer, Erin Gurley, Angie
Johnson, Shaena Ulissi, Vera Wu, Stef Sydlik, Suzanne Kinsky, Sharon
Perry, Jen Damon, Susan Musante, Mary Kowalski, Ashley Ateeya, Janel
Nye and Becky Schneider
The
Open Competition Group atop the eight hill, Sycamore Street.
The
Women's Competition Podium: From left to right: 4th Susan Musante,
2nd Shaena Ulissi, 1st Stef Sydlik, 3rd Sharon Perry, 5th Suzanne
Kinsky.
The
Open Competition Podium: From left to right: 4th Connor Brem, 2nd
Alec Ratzell, 1st Ian Baun, 3rd Daniel Uhranowsky, 5th Daniel Brown.
Women's
Competition Scorers: Alison Alcantara, Patrizia Rollo and Sara
Horsey.
The
three DD founders on Canton Ave: Bob Gottlieb placing 10th, Tom Chew
placing 12th and myself cheering them on.
Sponsors
Thanks
to Aero
Tech Designs for providing bicycle keychains and for creating the
official 2019 Dirty Dozen jersey and donating a substantial portion
of the sale proceeds to Danny.
Thanks
to Biketek Pittsburgh for hosting
Friday check-in and registration, and for providing a support vehicle
to aid riders with mechanical problems.
