Dino, Sheryl and Dennis
“Hills. We love them. We hate them. They make us strong. They make us weak. Today I choose to embrace hills.”
There is no doubt that team members Dennis DiPrete and Sheryl Guglielmo had these thoughts while biking up Mount Washington for the Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb. Introduced to the event by Dino Fiscaletti, an engineer with Norwood, MA based GZA who has completed the course 13 times, it was Dennis’ first time taking on the challenge and Sheryl’s third.
On August 15, the two took on the 7.6 mile climb – a climb with an average grade of 12 percent, and parts as high as 22 percent. Leading up to the big day, practice hills included Jenckes Hill in Providence which has a grueling 14-percent grade, Blue Hills in Milton, MA with an average grade of 9%, and Hammond Hill in North Kingstown, RI with an average grade of 6%.
“Training for the ride can be a challenge, especially with all of the other summer activities taking place, but the taste of success as you near the finish line and that final pass is so rewarding it’s worth it,” said Sheryl. –
Dennis and Sheryl bumped into a few friends of DiPrete Engineering during the race: Mark Greenleaf of Commonwealth Engineering completed the race as well as Alex Rothchild of Arcadis and son Eric who rode the entire course on a unicycle!
