I covered the 2019 Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen bike race for the Northside Chronicle. I shot photos and videos from the top of Rialto Street (a.k.a., “Pig Hill”) in the city’s Troy Hill neighborhood.
The race took place Saturday October 26, 2019, and it attracted 342 registrants, according to organizer Danny Chew. Founded in 1983 as a low-key ride the first weekend after Thanksgiving, the event now attracts racers and spectators from around the country. In 2016, an accident left Chew partially paralyzed and the $50 registration fee now goes to his rehabilitation. Other changes to the event over the years include moving it back from November to late October to avoid early snows and holiday weekend conflicts.
I met folks from around the Pittsburgh region who drove to Troy Hill to simply watch riders ascend Rialto Street’s steep 24% grade or to cheer on relatives and friends who were riding.
Dave Kiefer, of West Mifflin, arrived about 30 minutes before the riders, along with his wife and a friend. “My wife and I were watching,” he said. “She found it online and we were watching it where they were going up Canton Avenue, up towards Beechview, and that’s supposedly the steepest grade in the United States, 37 percent grade, and it’s cobblestone.”
Jodi Pucci of Beaver came to Troy Hill to see his son, Robert Stumpf, ride. Stumpf, 32, has been doing the ride for about 15 years and he was mentioned several times in WQED’s Rick Sebak’s brief documentary about the race in his “It’s Pittsburgh & a Lot of Other Stuff.”
Besides being excited about her son, what else brought Pucci out to watch the race? “Just accomplishing this. It’s kind of crazy,” she replied. “Look at the hill! I can’t imagine walking it.”
I have a special attachment to Rialto Street and the Troy Hill neighborhood: In the 1990s began researching and writing about the leather tanners, butchers, and livestock entrepreneurs who lived and worked around there. Then-Pittsburgh City Paper writer Chris Potter quoted one of my articles at length in a 1998 article responding to a reader’s question: “Why is Rialto Street, off East Ohio Street, called Pig Hill?”:
An article by David Rotenstein in the Spring 1997 issue of Pittsburgh History describes the sight: “They [the pigs] were herded up the steep face of Troy Hill near the 40th Street Bridge, and, grunting and defecating, along Rialto Street to Wicklines Lane, where they descend another quarter-mile to slaughterhouses on Spring Garden Avenue.”
I’ve been spending a lot of time revisiting my 1990s work and getting reacquainted with Troy Hill and its environs. Stay tuned for that. Meanwhile, this photo album contains an expanded collection of photos I filed with the newspaper.
I also shot some rough video clips. This clip captures a truck trying to navigate the narrow street’s 24% grade as racers are stuck behind it. Be sure to listen for spectators shouting, “Cars suck!”
© 2019 D.S. Rotenstein
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