Missouri to Host Tour of Missouri Bicycle Race

This September, the State of Missouri will be hosting a bicycle race. The event is set up to give the race a "Tour de France" look. There will be 15 teams of 8 riders. The race will cover seven stages in seven straight days with no breaks. It starts off on September 8th and will go through the 14th.

Here are the dates, places, and mileage of the stages. September 8th, St. Joesph to Kansas City 90 miles. September 9th, Clinton to Springfield 126 miles. September 10th, Branson (Individual time Trial) 18 miles. September 11th, Lebanon to Rolla 95 miles. September 12th, St. James to Jefferson City 108 miles. September 13th, Hermann to St. Charles 96 miles. September 14th, St Louis (Circuit Race) 70 miles.

The race will cover a total of 600 miles. Four teams that were entered in this years Tour de France will send participants from their respective teams. Heading the list is Gamin-Chipote and Columbia. Christian Vande Velde who finished fifth at this years tour is in the Olympics. However, it is rumored that he could end up riding in this years Tour of Missouri. This is the second year that the event has been held. Last year Gamin-Chipote won the event as a team. Team Columbia is improving all the time. Their team this year won five stages in France. So it would appear that the team competition could be very strong.

Two other teams that will be here that is improving all the time is the Dutch team Rabobank and Liquigas from Italy. The Sparkasse team from Germany will be here as will the team Tecos Trek from Mexico. One Canadian team will be here also. That team is Symmetrics

There will also be a few domestic teams participating. Jelly Belly, Toyota-United, BMC, Health-Net Maxxis, and Colavita-Sutter Home will also be racing. US teams making their debut for the first time will be Bissel, Kelly Benefits, and Rock Racing. Rock Racing is looked on as a breath of fresh air for the race. Their participants wear skull and crossbones on their green uniforms and drive Cadillacs to their races.