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Rider claims third tour title with final sprint

Grimm, Kettering’s Weakley take Tour d’Burg victories.

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By John Cummings, Contributing Writer 1:06 PM Monday, July 18, 2011

MIAMISBURG — Jeremy Grimm knows all about fighting through pain.

Eyeing a promising baseball career at Orrville High School, Grimm’s aspirations took a shot when he was diagnosed with Lyme disease. After missing 180 days of school over the final three years, he was able to conquer the disease.

Sunday afternoon, Grimm conquered 43 other professional racers to claim his third Tour d’Burg professional bike race, and the Ohio Criterium Championship.

“I’ve suffered on a bike before to a point where I couldn’t see,” Grimm said. “But, it is nothing like Lyme disease ... what people like the people in this community do like this brings things back into perspective that there are people out there that care.”

Grimm, who also won in 2006 and 2007, broke away from Mark Brown, Gregory Christian and Gabriel Moss down the final straightaway to win by 10 yards.

“I just kept pushing until it felt like my legs were going to explode,” he said.

Over the course of the 75-minute race, Grimm worked with teammates to keep the pace up. James Baldeare finished sixth and defending champ Marco Aledia 13th, but the main thing was getting someone from the Cleveland Clinic Sports team in the championship jersey.

“One of us three was going to win it,” Grimm said. “The other guys went hard for us and it played out how we wanted it to. This was a huge team effort. This is the biggest race in Ohio and we did everything perfect as a team the whole race.”

For women’s pro winner Jane Weakley, the ride during the women’s race was much easier than her last trek through the course.

“I was down here riding the other night and with the traffic lights it was a little bit of a disadvantage,” the Kettering resident said. “The first bike run I went on when I moved here started in Miamisburg. It’s a difficult course, but I feel comfortable here, I am a little more confident here.”

Cindy Smallwood (women 50-plus), Lisa Giuffre (women 40-plus), Krystal McNutt (women 30-plus), Leon Burk (men 70-plus), Gary Hickey (men 65-plus), David Linden (men 60-plus), Jim Jenkins (men 50-plus), O’Brien Forbes (men 40-plus), Matt Bole (men 30-plus), Adam Downs (men category five), Kathleen Neff (women category four), Jared Preston (men category four), Elaine Schaaf (women category three) and Michael Schena (men category three) also claimed state titles.

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