The 2nd Annual Philly Dirty Dozen Hill Climb

One of the coaches Lisa works with at Cadence, Colin Sandberg, attended the U of Pitt and was part of their cycling team. Out in Pittsburgh, they've been doing this ride that consisted of the toughest hill climbs in that area for the past 25 years. Anyway, this guy Colin started something similar in Philly area two years ago. Basically, he took the 13 toughest climbs in Philadelphia & Montgomery counties and turned them into a 44 mile cycling event. I was in Cadence about two months ago for an LT test and a bike fit when I first heard of this. Giving it a bout 2 seconds of thought, I said "when is it and how can I sign up"? I said this would be perfect for the weak climbers at Greenbrook Racing to do.

Hooksie Lad antied up and wanted in. So he and I show up at Cadence with our legs well rested and ready to rock. What a ride! These were some of the toughest hills I've ever climbed. Short distance, but 26-30% grade! The shortest was about 200 or 300 yards long, but most of them were at least a quarter mile, if not longer. Good, hard workout. After you'd get to the top, you'd wait for the rest of the group to make it up. We'd regroup and then off to the next. We finished up climbing one of the toughest in Manyunk, the famous "wall". Long...About 3 city blocks.
All in all it was a great day of riding. I'll probably ride that once a month in the winter. Since moving to Yardley, it's a bit to far for me to run down to Hartshorn to Mountain bike, this ride has that beat!

Here are the climbs:
1. Righter’s Ferry/Laurel Hill Cemetery
2. La Collina
3. Righter’s Mill Rd
4. Waverly Rd.
5. Bryn Trydden Rd.
6. Pleasant Ave.
7. Delhaven St.
8. County Line Rd.
9. Spring Garden St.
10. Hart’s Lane
11. Hagy’s Mill Rd.
12. Port Royal Ave.
13. The Manayunk Wall