Cycling Tour Returns to Missouri
Tour of Missouri, the state's largest annual sporting event and the youngest of three major U.S. cycling tours, announced its 2008 host cities today. Due to the success of last year's event, the second incarnation of the tour will be one day longer than the first – seven days of point-to-point cycling scheduled to begin September 8. Over 350,000 people showed up on the roads last year to cheer on the cyclists, providing a much appreciated tourism boost for the Show Me State. While the race isn’t as mountainous as similar, slightly larger events in California and Georgia, riders face 623 miles of deceivingly small hills. "It’s a heck of a lot tougher than people realize," says Brook Watts, the tour’s media relations director. "Right in the middle of America you’ve got some very tough terrain. Seven days of hard racing is a nice tune up for the World Championship only a week or so later." Around 120 of the world’s best cyclists, representing some 25 countries, will begin the tour in Kansas City and end in St. Louis, hitting a dozen cities along the way. Race organizers are expecting a return from last year’s winner George Hincapie, who formerly rode for the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France superpower. The tour's high-profile racers are lending the U.S. some street cred in a sport typically dominated by Europeans, says USA Cycling's Andy Lee. “By having so many international, world-class athletes at these events people are beginning to realize that there is a very strong, established structure of professional cycling here in the U.S.”
--Claire Napier Galofaro
What is the best bike to train for short distance Triathlon coming up in may?
Posted by: Another sean | January 31, 2008 at 01:22 PM