KANSAS CITY — Team Garmin-Chipotle of the United States and Team Liquigas of Italy — two top-performing entrants from the recently completed Tour de France — head a list of 13 teams that have been added for the seven-day Tour of Missouri world-class cycling event, which begins in St. Joseph on Sept. 8.

“We will be back to win,” said Jonathan Vaughters, director of the Garmin-Chipotle team, which competed successfully in last year’s race with the team title, second overall finisher (Will Frischkorn), and stage winner (Danny Pate). “This is not an end-of-the-season fun race for us. This is a serious objective for our team. It’s a major event.” The team is expected to bring many riders from its Tour de France team.

HealthNet presented by MAXXIS, the top team on America’s pro circuit the past four years, along with up and coming teams BMC and Rock Racing, head the list of top U.S.-based squads added, along with Bissell, Colavita Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light, Jelly Belly and Kelly Benefits Strategies-Medifast.

Mexico’s top professional team Tecos and Canada’s best squad Symmetrics, along with top European continental squads from Rabobank of the Netherlands and Sparkasse of Germany will participate. Rabobank is a top European-based club with both a Tour de France-level team and a younger development squad. Their development squad will be represented at Missouri.

All teams join the previously-announced participation of the world’s top team, Columbia, which will be led by the race’s defending-champion George Hincapie; and Toyota-United, which will be led by their star sprinter Ivan Dominguez, who won two stages at last year’s Tour of Missouri, and Dominque Rollin, who placed third overall last year.

“Without doubt, this is a deeper field than last year,” said Chris Aronhalt, managing partner of event organizers Medalist Sports. “We have three teams that played major roles at the Tour de France this year. We have all the top clubs in North America, and two top European continental teams that will surely be hungry. It is an interesting and talented mix.”