Pittsburgh Magazine profiles Pittsburgh’s Million Mile Man
By Sean D. Hamill | Pittsburgh Magazine
It might sound difficult but doable: Ride up 13 of the toughest hills in and around Pittsburgh in one competitive race. It is the premise behind the punishing Dirty Dozen bike race, an annual Pittsburgh tradition for irreverent cyclists. It takes place this month on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, as it has in most years over the past three decades. Maybe you’ve driven up to Mount Washington by way of curvy Sycamore Street, or peered up the short-but-steep Rialto Street off Route 28 in Troy Hill — two of the race’s easier hills. Maybe you’ve even thought to yourself: “I could ride up that slope.” But riding a baker’s dozen of such hills — the race first included 12, but organizers added one more just to be cruel — all in one day, strung together over five or six hours, is not merely hard or challenging. For many riders, it is impossible — even for some of those who have trained for it. Some don’t understand what they’ve gotten into until they’re in the race.
It might sound difficult but doable: Ride up 13 of the toughest hills in and around Pittsburgh in one competitive race. It is the premise behind the punishing Dirty Dozen bike race, an annual Pittsburgh tradition for irreverent cyclists. It takes place this month on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, as it has in most years over the past three decades. Maybe you’ve driven up to Mount Washington by way of curvy Sycamore Street, or peered up the short-but-steep Rialto Street off Route 28 in Troy Hill — two of the race’s easier hills. Maybe you’ve even thought to yourself: “I could ride up that slope.” But riding a baker’s dozen of such hills — the race first included 12, but organizers added one more just to be cruel — all in one day, strung together over five or six hours, is not merely hard or challenging. For many riders, it is impossible — even for some of those who have trained for it. Some don’t understand what they’ve gotten into until they’re in the race.
Read the full article at Pittsburgh Magazine’s website.
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