Heyl: Paralyzed Danny Chew Returns To The Bike Race He Created

PITTSBURGH, PA - After a year’s absence and a life-altering accident, Danny Chew returns Saturday to the Dirty Dozen, the grueling bicycle race he co-founded 35 years ago.

During last year’s race, a 50-mile course featuring 13 of Pittsburgh's steepest hills, Chew was in a Chicago rehabilitation facility after a September 2016 bike accident broke his neck and left him paralyzed from the chest down. To say this year’s Dirty Dozen will be different for him would be a colossal understatement.

He’ll be transported from the starting line to Beechview’s Canton Avenue, one of the world’s steepest streets with a 37 percent grade. He’ll be transported to the finish line. He’ll be transported to the post-race party at the East End Brewing Company.

“It’s definitely going to be strange,” said Chew, 55, of Squirrel Hill, who is adjusting to riding now in a handcycle. “But at least we’ll have one handcyclist, Attila Domos, in the race.”

Chew expects this year’s Dirty Dozen to draw at least 200 participants and perhaps as many as 500, depending on the Thanksgiving week weather forecast. Even 200 is a gargantuan number compared to the number of participants in the 1983 inaugural race.

“There were five of us,” he said. “Three finished.”

Chew co-founded the race with his brother, Tom, and their friend, Bob Gottlieb.

“I wanted a race that was more than 10 kilometers and showcased some of the toughest, steepest hills in the city,” he said. “This was way before the Internet or GPS,so we used United States geological survey maps and counted the 20-foot contour lines. The closer the lines, the steeper the hill.”

That method worked superbly. The race includes the aforementioned Canton Avenue; Sycamore Street in Mt. Washington; Rialto Street in Troy Hill; Berryhill Road in O’Hara and Flowers Avenue in Hazelwood. These are streets that are difficult to walk up slowly, let alone competitively bike on.

The race grew gradually from its humble beginnings, failing to draw more than 50 entrants until 1999, Chew said. Today it draws people from across the country from diverse demographic groups.

“The youngest we’ve ever had finish was an 11-year-old boy, the oldest was 69,” Chew said. “But there’s a guy who’s 70 who is going to be out there Saturday. If he finishes, he’ll be the oldest guy.”

Chew hopes to perhaps one day be able to tackle one of the Dirty Dozen’s formidable hills on his handcycle , but has no idea when that day might come.

“I’m nowhere near the level it takes. My longest ride in a handcycle has been 36 miles and that took more than four hours,” he said. “Thirty-six miles.”

This from a man who twice won the Race Across America, a 3,000-mile event that is the world’s longest continuous nonstop bicycle race. Outside magazine once ranked the race as the world’s toughest, beating out the Tour de France and the Iditarod.

Those days obviously are over. But asked if he thought his presence at the Dirty Dozen might serve as an inspiration to the racers tackling the supremely challenging course, Chew said, “Yes. Definitely.”

“Everyone has their own challenges in life” he said. “If I can inspire someone to do something they might not think is possible, that would be good for them - and good for me, too.”

Eric Heyl is Patch’s Pittsburgh field editor. He can be reached at 412-334-4033 or Eric.Heyl@Patch.com.

Photo via YouTube.