Not a crit... (maybe you are thinking of Manyuck [sp??] wall in Philly - that one is in a crit). Canton Ave is in an unofficial race called "The Dirty Dozen" - everyone rides around Pittsburgh to 12 or 13 hills - the race is only on up the hills. Everyone rides together to get to the base of each climb. The person with the shortest combined hill climb time is the winner. Supposedly it doesn't continue until everyone gets up Canton Ave... but I hear that rule is a bit loose.

The worst I've climbed around here have been in the 20's - I think 24 or 26%.... one I measured on map my ride as about 1/2 mile long. I thought I was going to die! (BTW - Map My Ride doesn't seem to go over 20% so if you put your local bad boy in there it won't tell you the true gradient.)