Lance Armstrong at Tour of Missouri?

Kathleen Nelson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is report Lance may be considering the Tour of Missouri 2009 --

The hard-working dudes at Velonews have reported that Lance Armstrong will extend his schedule beyond the Tour de France and compete in the Tour of Ireland in late August, then appear at a two-day cancer conference there.

This is significant because earlier reports indicated that Armstrong would shut it down after July. . . .

So, if Lance is feeling good, he could consider riding the Tour of Missouri. Race organizers dropped the word “Astana” into the conversation several times when they revealed the host cities last month, so it would be no surprise to see Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner and the other Americans here on Labor Day.

Parker suggests a cancer-related sponsor/tie-in may be the missing ingredient.

Of course, that makes you ask--what about American Century? Don't they have a huge Lance tie-in already?

Wasn't his bout with cancer one reason Jim Stowers of American Century founded the Stowers Institute for Medical Research?

There could be a potential tie-in there somewhere . . .