2007 Tour of Missouri Pro Cycling Race to be "Super Bowl On Wheels"

Missouri Governor Blunt today announced the 2007 Tour of Missouri Pro Cycling Race, September 11-16, 2007.

The tour web site is now online: https://www.visitmo.com/

At the press conference today, 3-4PM, these people are speaking about the Tour: the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Frank Viverito, President of St. Louis Sports Commission, Fred Rodriguez, 3-time national pro champion and six-time Tour de France rider, Kevin Livingston, former pro cyclist and two-time member of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France winning teams (originally from St. Louis), and Jim Birrell, race director, Medalist Sports.

Why the big fuss?

The Tour of Missouri will join the Tour of California and the Tour of Georgia as one of the top 3 American pro bicycle stage races.

It will attract the same teams and same general riders as you see in those tours or the major European tours like the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, etc.

The race will have national daily TV coverage on a channel like OLN or ESPN2.

Tour of California attracted over 1 million spectators last year and the Tour of Georgia attracted 500,000.

The route (not completely settled yet) will very likely start in Kansas City, work its way through cities like Springfield, Branson, Jefferson City, Columbia, Hannibal and others, and end in St. Louis under the arch.

The tour is more than just a bike race, though--it's a traveling carnival, a "Super Bowl on Wheels". Thousands of bicyclists will come to Missouri from all over the country to ride and watch. Starting and ending cities will have major festivals/carnivals/celebrations attracting thousands of people to watch the start or finish live, the rest of the race via TV, and enjoy fun and camaraderie as part of the festival.

Our central location in the country and great network of rural state highways and trails like the Katy and others make Missouri a prime location for associated bicycle tourism (one of my pet ideas is Missouri's bicycle tourism industry is extremely underdeveloped).

FYI we have 3 MoBikeFed board members on the Lt. Governor's organizing committee for the race (though 2 are officially representing other organizations or agencies) and MOBRA President (& MoBikeFed board member) Mike Weiss has played a very important role in planning the route & working out details. MoDOT Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee member & friend of bicycling Debra Lee works for the Division of Tourism and has been working her tail off finding sponsors, getting host cities lined up, and doing all the other promotion and tourism type things that have needed to be done.

Statement from the governor's office:

The Tour of Missouri is patterned after the famous Tour de France of point-to-point, or stage racing. In its first year, the Tour will join the elite ranks of top-international domestic cycling of the Tour of California and Tour de Georgia. The race is much more than a cycling race, however, and brings the pageantry of the race along with a rolling festival to each
host start and finish city during the week-long event.

See ... https://www.visitmo.com/.

• Daily Peloton article here.
  
• Springfield News-Leader article here
  
• MissouriNET article here