Governor promotes Tour of Missouri in St. Louis

Governor Blunt met a group of bicyclists at the Galleria Mall in Brentwood today.

Governor Blunt and his family stuffed "Build-a-Bear" and outfit it with a special Tour of Missouri jersey.

Build-a-Bear is one of the major sponsors of the Tour of Missouri.

The St. Louis Bicycle Federation, TrailNet, and the Missouri Bicycle Federation helped organize a group of bicyclists to meet the governor.

One of the bicyclists attending asked the governor if he will now plan to do more for bicycling in Missouri--more bicycle-friendly roads, trails, shoulders, etc. The governor indicated he is in support of this.

An interesting side-effect has been the growing interest of state workers who have been working on the Tour of Missouri. We hear from several sources that people who previously had "no interest" in bicycling have now purchased bicycles and become regular riders.

Other state agencies are reported to be buzzing with conversations about bicycling and (for example) how roads can be made safer for Tour of Missouri riders.

And that is definitely not something that happened very often before the Tour of Missouri came along . . .

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