Tour of Missouri, One Day And Four New Cities Added, St. Joseph Will Host the Grand Depart!

Of the twelve host cities for 2008, eight of the 2007 Tour host cities will return this year, including Kansas City, Springfield, St. Charles, and St. Louis, which will each host a stage finish. Clinton and Lebanon will each host a stage start. And Branson, will for the second-time host the Individual Time Trial. A pass-through and start city for last year in 2008, Jefferson City will host a stage finish with race circuits for the first time. Although very exciting for spectators to watch, circuits are more dangerous than open road type races because cyclists are racing on short length loops in city streets usually about 2 to 5 miles in length, engaging corners at high speeds close together in large groups that include lightening speed sprints to the finish.

St. Joseph, previous host to the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials for weightlifting, will host the Grand Depart for the 7 day Tour across Missouri. Pictured at the announcing press conference in St. Joseph this week are members of the St. Joseph LOC, Bob Fitzpatrick far left and Richard Sipes second from the right. Second from the left is Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder. Next to Lt. Gov. Kinder is Dave Roberts of Boehringer Ingelheim, who is a major contributing sponsor for St. Joseph. Standing on the right is St. Joseph Councilman Bill Falkner.

The weekend before the Tour of Missouri starts on Monday the 8^th, St. Joseph is hosting Pre-Tour of Missouri, activities with a Team Time Trial on Saturday the 6^th and a 42 mile Road Race on Sunday the 7^th. Both will include part of Stage One of the Tour of Missouri. Saturday, St. Joseph is closing its famous Parkway Boulevard System for the 16.5 mile loop Team Time Trial. Organized by Lantern Rouge Racing, Roger Harrison said, there has not been a team time trial in this part of the country in over 4 years and the entire region is excited about it. With over $5,000 in cash prizes being awarded, both Pre-Tour of Missouri events are USA Cycling sanctioned. The first weekend in September is also the weekend of the Colman Hawkins Jazz Festival. Information for both Cycling race events can be found at:

Tour of St. Joseph Team Time Trial & Road Race.

This event [The Tour of Missouri] proved, in only its first year, to be hugely successful for all involved, most importantly the great host communities of the Tour, Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, chair of the Tourism Commission of Missouri. Kinder said, It was very successful for the state, as tourism vehicle, people from 73 countries caught part of the event via live webcasts and more than 350,000 showed up on roads of the event.

During the press conference located in Jefferson City in January, Governor Blunt said 360,000 people watched the 2007 event live spending $26 million locally in Missouri. Many more watched it on TV and over the internet from 73 different countries. "Thanks to the largest sporting event ever held in Missouri... what you have is a whole bunch of people around the world who may never have heard of Missouri now do know," said Blunt.

The Tour of Missouri is a professional United Cycliste International sanctioned racing stage race, held in Missouri that made its debut on September 11^th, 2007 six days of racing. Run by the same organizers of the Tour de Georgia and the Amgen Tour of California, Medalist Sports, the inaugural Tour of Missouri was billed as the third highest profile domestic race in the United States. Welcoming the worlds elite cyclists on a 600-mile point-to-point race, the second annual Tour of Missouri will include seven days of racing, from Kansas City to the Ozarks, over the Katy Trail, along Route 66 and the historic Missouri River, with a fantastic finish under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. This years event also will follow the Olympic Games in Beijing, so its possible some of the 120 competitors may be toting Olympic hardware, said Chris Aronhalt, managing partner of Medalist Sports, which produces the event.

Stretches of the historic Route 66; including Rolla, Lebanon, Springfield, St. James and St. Louis are part of the announced routes. Rolla Missouri, which missed out hosting the event last year, was pumped about gaining a spot this year, reported the Rolla Daily News. Rolla was disappointed when it was not selected for the inaugural race last year, but only excitement prevailed when the Rolla contingent at the news conference made no effort to hide its elation with the announcement about 2008. Mayor Bill Jenks didnt mince words. He did a fist pump from the podium and uttered an Army yell that quieted the rest of the room. “Darn right we are happy, Jenks said. We will be ready when the Tour hits Rolla, Jenks said. I guarantee you it will be tough for any other city to outdo Rolla.

Course for the 2008 Tour:

1. Monday, September 8th 90 mi Saint Joseph to Kansas City
2. Tuesday, September 9th 125 mi Clinton to Springfield
3. Wednesday, September 10th 18 mi Branson (Individual Time Trial)
4. Thursday, September 11th 105 mi Lebanon to Rolla
5. Friday, September 12th 100 mi St. James to Jefferson City
6. Saturday, September 13th 110 mi Hermann to St. Charles
7. Sunday, September 14th 75 mi St. Louis (Circuit)

Total Distance 623 mi

In last years Tour of Missouri, Toyota-United Ivan Dominguez won the first and last stages in Kansas City and St. Louis. George Hincape won the second stage from Clinton to Springfield while his close friend and formidable competitor Levi Leipheimer won stage three in the Bran son Time Trial. Brazilian sprinter Luciano Pagliarini won the fourth stage of the Tour of Missouri on Friday from Lebenon to Columbia and Slipstream Chipotle team member Danny Pate won stage 5 from Jefferson City to St. Charles. While George Hincapie retained the overall lead in the General Category throughout the week after his win on the second day, Pagliarini, racing for Spanish team Saunier Duval-Prodir, finished the 133-mile stage from Lebenon to Columbia in 5 hours, 7 minutes, 52 seconds, barely edging Canadian Andrew Pinfold of the Canada, Symmetrics Cycling.

American George Hincapie of team High Road will participate in the Tour of Missouri international cycling race, September 8-14, race organizers announced today. Hincapie, a Tour de France stage winner, also will lend his image to marketing the race. With my new team High Road, I will attend the Tour of Missouri this September to defend my championship," said Hincapie, who has already won a stage of the Amgen Tour of California in February, while most recently helping his team win the yellow jersey at the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T; April 21^st through the 28^th. "Being an Olympic year, I plan on doing the Tour de France, Olympics in Beijing, U.S. National Championships and completing my season at the Tour of Missouri. For me, the race last year was special. The spectators and state were unbelievable. It was special as the last year with Discovery Channel team. I look forward to the race this year with my new team.

Team High Road, currently ranks number one in many parts of the word, and Hincapie is the first team to be formally announced by Medalist Sports, the Tour of Missouri organizers. A total of 15 teams with eight cyclists each will be participating. The September event will start in historic St. Joseph and finish in Kansas City. Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, chairman of the Tour of Missouri, Inc., added: George Hincapie is a top world-class athlete and winner of last years race. He embodies everything great about this statewide event. People will come in from around the country to see him and his team perform.

The 2007 Tour of Missouri included the last appearance for the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. All but a few of the team members and coaches in the Discovery Team joined other European and American teams and will also return to compete this year. The Discovery Pro Cycling Team was directed by Belgian Johan Bruyneel, who also managed U.S. Postal. The chief mechanic was Julien DeVries. The team was co-owned by Tailwind Sports Corp. of San Francisco and Capital Sports & Entertainment of Austin Texas. Johan Bruyneel along with Levi Leipheimer joined the European based Astana who is expected to race this years Tour of Missouri.

Last year 10 American Pro Cycling Teams attended the Tour of Missouri among them the Discovery Team. Along with Discovery were American Pro Cycling Teams: Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis, Navigators Insurance Cycling Team, Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle, Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team, BMC Racing Team, Jelly Belly Cycling Team, Kodak Fallery.com-Sierra Nevada Bbrewing Co., Colavita/Sutter Home Presented by Cooking Light and the USA Cycling National Development Team. Pro Cycling teams from out side the United States were, Team Sparkasse headquartered in Germany, DFL-Cyclingnews-Lightspeed from the United Kingdom, Symmetrics Cycling Team from Canada, Tecos de la Universidad de Guadalajara from Guadalajara and Saunier Duval-Prodir from Spain.

Posted by Wesley Revels,
President Quad States of St. Joseph, Inc.
Saint Michael's Meadow Trail Foundation, Inc.
Missouri Bicycle Federation Board Member

The following are a few news links:

Steephill.TV: http://www.steephill.tv/
2008 USA Cycling Pro Tour: 2008 USA Cycling Professional Tour
Cycling TV: http://www.cycling.tv/
http://cycling.tv/race-information/tour_of_missouri
VeloNews: http://www.velonews.com/
Big Shark Cycling: https://www.bigshark.com/page.cfm?PageID=22
2008 Tour of Missouri: http://www.tourofmissouri2008.com/
Wikipedia.org, Tour of Missouri: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_of_Missouri
Cycling News.com: http://www.cyclingnews.com/
Missouri Bicycle Federation, Tour of Missouri 2008: /TourOfMissouri
VeloNorth.Ca (MTB News): http://www.velonorth.ca/
Heartland Challenges: http://www.heartlandrace.com/
USA Cycling Pro Championships: http://www.usacyclingchampionships.com/index.php
2008 Amgen Tour of California: http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/
2008 Tour of Georgia: http://www.tourdegeorgia.com/index.php
Union Cycliste Internationale: http://www.uci.org?MenuId=MTYxNw
USA Cycling: https://www.usacycling.org/