2022 Summary and Acknowledgements
The 39th Dirty Dozen (DD) was held on Saturday, October 22nd, 2022. The temperature went from a low of 42º F to a high of 73º, making it the warmest DD ever—beating the old record of 66º set in 2006! It was SUNNY all day without a cloud in the sky, giving us the best DD weather ever! Considering this, I was surprised that "only" 264 riders started. The record is 453 set in 2017. Because my transport minivan wouldn't start—due to a dead battery—I missed the start and the lunch stop in Millvale. I did show up at the top of the 12th hill (Barry/Holt/Eleanor), and for the post-DD party and awards ceremony at the East End Brewery. Thanks to 18-time DD rider Mark Hess for driving me around.
The top three riders in the Open Competition last year did not compete this year. Last year's winner Dan Uhranowsky rode in the second group of riders, taking the front spot on a tandem, with Jason Graham taking the back/stoker position. They successfully rode all the hills on their first attempt. Here is a photo of them on Canton:
Credit to Jill Greco Bodnar
Four-time DD winner Ian Baun, who took third place last year, rode in the third group of riders with my brother Tom Chew—a DD co-founder. Here is a photo of Ian, me and Tom atop the 12th hill (Barry/Holt/Eleanor):
Ian Harris—fourth place last year—was my pick to win the Open Competition this year. But after taking third place on the first two hills he became ill and quit. Rookie Ben Lawlor won the first hill. Forty-seven-year-old Larry Weber—fifth place last year—won the second hill, and took the overall lead. Eli Pace—seventh last year—won the sixth hill, and took the lead, which he held until the end! Weber was second overall, just six points behind Pace. Winning five hills, rookie Alan Boguslawski was third, just eight points behind Weber. Lawlor was fourth and Kyle Hitz was fifth.
Riding his 14th DD, 64-year-old John Brockenbrough placed fourth on two hills, and finished seventh overall! Riding with toe clips and straps, he added another year to his record as the oldest DD points scorer. Dave Norton—the manager of a Trader Joe's store who donates 600 bananas to the event—took second place on the second hill, and finished 10th overall. Sixty-three-year-old David Hearn finished in 12th place.
Photo of men's podium:
Left to right: 4th Benjamin Lawlor, 2nd Larry Weber, myself (Danny Chew), 1st Eli Pace (missing), 3rd Alan Buguslawski, 5th Kyle Hitz, & 6th Shawn Klocek.
Open Competition hilltop video finishes on YouTube.
Five women rode in the women’s competition this year. The top four riders from last year did not ride. A 10-place points system was used in spite of the low rider count. Kelly Collier—who took fifth place last year—won the event with 129 points, one point short of a perfect score. This tied the points records set by Hayley Wickstrom last year, Stefanie Sydlik (64 out of 65) in 2015, Betsy Shogren (64 out of 65) in 2009, and me (64 out of 65) in 1988. Collier became the first woman to win the prestigious double crown: the DD win and the Allegheny Cycling Association criterium series club championship in the same year! Three men have done this: Dan Uhranowsky last year, 11-time DD winner Stephen “Stevo” Cummings in 2010, and I in 1984 and 1985. Rookie Kelly Latimer took second place. Fifty-five-year-old Mary Kowalski took third place and increased by three years her record as the oldest female points scorer. Suzanne Kinsky, who also marshaled the group, won Canton and was fourth overall. This was her fifth DD! This ties the record for the most DD's done by a woman. Erin Yanacek and Stephanie Burch have also done five DDs each. Rookie Kristen Keyes scored 49 points, but didn't make all of the hills. Riding in the Club Heat, Julie Grove finished her fourth DD.
Photo of the top three women on Canton:
1. Suzanne Kinsky, 2. Kelly Collier, & 3. Kelly Latimer. Credit to Jill Greco Bodnar
Photo of the women's podium:
Left to right: 2nd Kelly Latimer, 1st Kelly Collier, 3rd Mary Kowalski, & 4th Suzanne Kinsky
There were two very impressive firsts in this year’s DD. Thirty-five-year-old Jonathan Weasner of New London, Ohio became the first handcyclist to complete the DD! A handcycle might be better described as an arm powered tricycle (APT). Regardless, because arms are so much weaker than legs a handcycle is much harder to ride up hills than a bicycle. DD co-director Chris Helbling escorted Weasner along the entire route. They started with the Licensed group and finished at about 4:30 pm—ahead of the last two groups. His low gear was a 24 x 50—meaning for every revolution of his front, drive wheel, his crank arms went around twice! Here is a photo of him stopped on Canton:
Credit to Jill Greco Bodnar
He made the hill. Because handcycling is so much tougher than bicycling with legs, the continuous upward motion/no stopping rule is waived for them.
Photo of him atop the 12th hill - Barry/Holt/Eleanor:
Photo of him on podium:
Twenty-six-year-old old Ryan Matthews became the first unicyclist to complete the DD! He began riding unicycles at the end of June—just four months before the DD. He practiced on most days, and trained on all of the DD hills. The weekend before the DD, he rode the first 25 miles of the 2021 DD route, carrying a mini bicycle on his back to ride between the hills. But he figured this would have made for a very LONG day on the full DD. Because his top speed on a unicycle is only five mph, I allowed him to be driven between the hills. His father Joe and sister Jessica were his support crew. Because Kendall Street was added at the last minute as a new DD hill on the 2022 route, Ryan didn't have sufficient time to train on it, so he replaced it with Logan and Rialto (Pig Hill)—meaning he did 14 hills! He made every hill on his first attempt except for Canton, which required three tries. In training, he has never made Canton on his first attempt. His father Joe told me Ryan started riding at 7:09 am, and finished at 1:41 pm. After he finished, Ryan, Joe and Jessica went back to Canton, but missed all the DD riders. Since he didn't ride with any of the DD riders, he decided not to go to the post-ride party/awards ceremony at East End Brewery.
He was on Pittsburgh Today Live training on the 10th DD hill Boustead: Link
Here are photos and a video of him making Canton taken by his father and sister: Link
By the top of the last hill (Tesla), the time gap between the first and last groups had stretched to over 3 hours. The finishing times:
| Open Competition | 3:10 PM |
| Licensed | 3:25 PM |
| Club | 3:35 PM |
| Women | 3:55 PM |
| Fan Club | 4:10 PM |
| Enthusiast | 4:25 PM |
| Rouleur | 5:25 PM |
| Party Bus | 6:25 PM |
Eleven-time DD winner Stevo Cummings increased his streak of most consecutive DDs to 19, riding in all of the events from 2003 to 2022! Thirty-three riders have now ridden at least 10 DD's.
Here are my DD rider indexes: Link
2,540 riders have ridden/started the DD.
4,676 DD rides/starts have been done.
So the average number of rides per rider is 1.84
Thanks to the crew at the top of the 12th hill, Barry/Holt/Eleanor, for turning their garage on Cobden Street into a food stop with a bathroom. Here is a photo of them with me:
Thanks to Chris Helbling and Biketek for handling day-before DD registration and packet pickup. Thanks to Chris's wife Kathleen, and Dave Shaffer's wife Heidi for doing day-of registration at the starting location. Thanks to Dave Norton and Trader Joe's for coming through with 600 bananas again. Thanks to NuGo Nutrition for donating lots of NuGo bars. Thanks to Ron Lutz and son Eric, and Dave Shaffer, his wife Heidi and their son Ezra and daughter Isabella for managing the food stops at Millvale Riverfront Park and atop Canton. Thanks to the officials who scored the hills: Sara Horsey and Jill Geisler judged the women’s competition; Cliff Spiegel, Mikhail Evstiounin, Jonathan Pratt and his brother Paul, and Sandy and Dave Rovelli judged the men's competition. Thanks to Evan Robinson of Steady State Cycles for driving a support vehicle for the men's competition. Thanks to Chris Helbling's brother Mike for driving a support vehicle for the women's competition. Thanks to the many rangers and marshals for keeping the DD safe: Chris Helbling, Vinay Chaudhary, Dave Norton, Tae Min Hong, Dave Good, Ian Baun, Suzan Falvey, Rob Baiko, Abe Stuckey, Dave Hamburger, Jason McCullough, Carl Hubel, brothers Doug and Dave Riegner, Eddie Leonard, Jeremiah Sullivan, Ken Mowry and Suzanne Kinsky.
A huge thanks to DD co-directors Chris Helbling and Jonathan Pratt for doing such terrific jobs!