stjoenews.net | Bike race to begin in St. Joe

The route for the 2008 Tour of Missouri will officially be unveiled this morning at a press conference in Jefferson City, but several local and state sources confirmed that St. Joseph is the “grand depart” for the week-long race that begins Sept. 8.

“This is an event that has not only national but international prestige,” said Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph. “To be the start of it is even better than just being a leg of it.”

The inaugural 2007 Tour of Missouri attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators over six days and featured many of the world’s top riders and teams. They included 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and the final race for Lance Armstrong’s former Discovery Channel team.

“To see these world-class athletes riding in St. Joseph is a lifetime event that I thought I never would have witnessed,” said Wesley Revels, a St. Joseph bike enthusiast.

Mr. Revels, who volunteered in last year’s Tour of Missouri, said spectators aren’t separated from the event and the athletes as in other sports. He recalled conversations with two of America’s top riders last year, Ivan Dominguez and Danny Pate, and said it was a great honor to host the “global, stellar” event.

“Very soon now, beginning (today), news agencies around the world will be preparing for St. Joseph,” Mr. Revels said.

Mr. Revels hoped to parlay the event and attention on biking into more races, children’s events, and trail development. Mr. Revels leads a group that hopes to connect St. Joseph to a network of national hike and bike trails.

“The Tour of Missouri is an overwhelming event ... but this is about more than the Tour of Missouri,” he said.

Biking Web site steephill.tv posted a 2008 Tour of Missouri route map early Tuesday. According to the map, which the News-Press couldn’t confirm, the first leg will cover 90 miles between St. Joseph and Kansas City.

This year’s race is one of five on USA Cycling’s 2008 Pro Tour, along with tours of California, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Colorado. USA Cycling is the official cycling organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee.

The 2007 Tour of Missouri was the cover story of this month’s Road Magazine.

George Hincapie was the individual winner. Discovery Channel, which won the team event, included Mr. Hincapie, Mr. Contador and the Tour de France’s third-place finisher Levi Leipheimer.

Other notable teams included Slipstream (Chipotle), Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team and the USA Cycling National Development Team.

horse1 January 30, 2008 at 4:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Here in Scottsdale/Phoenix we are in the middle of the Super Bowl at the moment and it is interesting to observe the manner in which the community has embraced the event. Of course it's a much bigger "event", but then the Valley of the Sun is a pretty big community and what is going on is veeery big. The first event was a kick off "party"...100 days to Super Bowl.

And there has been a constant stream of "activities" since that time. This week will be related activities non-stop...absolutely everywhere. There will be street festivals in many of the "cities" (Tempe/Mesa/Glendale/etc)

Most of the major retailers have big sales events with celebrities on site. All of the Hotels and most of the restaurants & bars are going all out each in their own way.

Football fans and non-football fans alike are participating.

Many events are chartiable and many local charties will benefit.

This last week is intense. It seems that the bike race would be an opportunity for St Joseph to rally an "event" that went beyond "bike fans"....and is certainly an opportunity to put the community "on the map".

It's things like this that can build community spirit and create a positive enviornment. Seems like a good opportunity for the entire community to "buy in". It's a good time of year, weather should be great and such an event could be positive.

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