A high-profile bicycle commute from St. Joseph to Kansas City in September will wheel an onslaught of revelry into both cities.

The two communities both plan health expos to promote the Tour of Missouri in the hours leading up to the beginning and end of the professional bike race, but St. Joseph is taking a more colorful slant by partnering with an established local blues festival.

“Healthy people like blues, too,” Coleman Hawkins Jazz Society president Mark Sheehan said.

The race’s first stage starts at Civic Center Park in St. Joseph at 12:30 p.m. one week from today and ends about three hours later at the Country Club Plaza that Monday.

Kansas City laid claim to all of stage one during the race’s inaugural year in 2007.

So while professional male racers weave through St. Joseph’s Parkway system and South Side, female professional cyclists will embark on a six-corner tour near the Plaza this year — a new component to Kansas City’s schedule of events, said Susan Blanco of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association.

But all eyes will be on St. Joseph at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 8.

Ms. Blanco said she expects several thousand people to gather at the plaza to watch the Tour of Missouri’s gun start in St. Joseph on a large screen before their attention turns to the women’s race.

“It will be packed,” she said.

Most of Kansas City’s tour events, including a post-race party and awards ceremonies, focus more on race day, while St. Joseph’s activities play up the anticipation with a flurry of activities set for the pre-competition weekend, which is known as the Bikes and Blues Festival.

Amateur bike races will take place Saturday and Sunday at Bode Ice Arena, while vendors and stunt demonstrations will decorate Civic Center Park both days for the wellness expo.

City of St. Joseph organizers have joined with the Coleman Hawkins Jazz Society, which kicks off a three-day blues festival at 6 p.m. Friday at Felix Street Square.

The joint Bikes and Blues Festival is being funded through private donations and fundraising of about $41,000, said Andy Clements, the city’s assistant director of public. The City Council recently approved an additional $8,000 to pay for portable toilets, orange cones to block off streets during the Downtown event and race, among other expenses, he said.

More than 225 volunteers are needed for each weekend day of the festival and for the race. Anyone interested in volunteering can sign up at www.tourofmissouri.com.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached

at alysonraletz@npgco.com.