Although it's only May, George Hincapie says he'll defend his title in the upcoming Tour of Missouri scheduled Sept. 8-14.

Hincapie won the inaugural Missouri stage bike race last year as a member of the Discovery Channel pro cycling team. He's now a member of Team High Road, officially registered in San Luis Obispo, California.

Hincapie recently finished the Tour of Georgia, where High Road teammate Kanstantin Sivtsov won the race with a decisive attack on Brasstown Bald ....   more »

A dozen cities will host starts or finishes at the second annual Tour of Missouri that rolls our for 7 days in 2008 from Sept. 8 through Sept. 14.

The 623-mile pro bicycle race begins on Monday in St. Joseph with a 90-mile stage race to Kansas City. It ends Sunday at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis with a circuit race.

Once again the racers will pedal the hills around Branson for the individual time trial, but they won't visit one of last year's cities -- Columbia -- at all...   more »

Tour of Missouri on Versus cable network: 4-6 p.m. (ET) Wednesday

Photo by Tamara Painter
Young fans meet racers

One of the major goals of the Tour of Missouri bike race this year was to boost tourism to the Show Me state.

But the bicycle race had the spillover effect of introducing a lot of folks to professional cyclists and winning a slight measure of respect for those who ride their bikes on Missouri's streets.

Blog reader Jack Painter wrote to me after the race that his family members were thrilled to meet many of the racers. And Kansas City Star columnist Bill Graham writes that following the race, "We need to keep working on making bicycling a bigger pastime in our communities." ...   more »

There's something very odd going on with the Discovery Channel pro cycling team at the Tour of Missouri.

This year's winner of the Tour de France, Alberto Contador, is working as a domestique to the Tour's yellow jersey wearer, George Hincapie. When's that last time that happened on this team? What a difference two months can make.

After retaining the yellow jersey after Stage 4 on Friday, Hincapie told VeloNews:

"Everyone is working well. I have the reigning Tour de France champion bringing me bottles. That's not a normal thing, but it's a great honor to lead the race. I will do everything I can to keep the jersey." ...   more »

Here's an image of George Hincapie by the Spare Cycles blog author Ken Conley, a cycling photographer based in California who made the trip to Missouri to shoot the race.

It's certainly great to see Hincapie in yellow for the second day at the Tour of Missouri, especially considering the hard-luck bumps his career occasionally takes. (Ken has more pix at kwc at flickr.com .)

On Thursday's 18-mile individual time trial around Branson, Hincapie finished in 6th place, but that was good enough to not only retain the lead but put a 1-minute-40 margin over second place William Fischkorn of Slipstream in the overall standings.

The winner on the day was Discovery Channel teammate Levi Leipheimer, who added Wednesday's win to ITT victories at the Tour of California, Tour de Georgia and Tour de France this year. ...   more »

The ever-popular George Hincapie won Stage 2 of the Tour of Missouri on Wednesday, propelling himself into the yellow jersey.

The 34-year-old Greenville, SC, resident is longest-standing member of the soon-to-be-defunct cycling team sponsored by the Discovery Channel. He's the only Discovery member to have accompanied Lance Armstrong on all of his 7 Tour de France victories.

Winner of the USA Cycling pro road championship in 2006, Hincapie wore the stars and stripes at races in the US and Europe this year, but gave up the title to Levi Leipheimer at the nationals over Labor Day weekend. ...   more »

The first cyclist to wear the Tour of Missouri yellow jersey is Ivan Dominguez, a Cuban riding for the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team who wn the stage in a mass sprint.

The previous big win this year for the 31-year-old sprinter, who defected from Cuba to ride in the US, was the final stage of the Tour of California ...   more »

The understatement in this sentence in the Tour of Missouri (it starts today) pre-race write-up at VeloNews gave me a chuckle:

"Though the course lacks any major climbs, the rolling roads of Missouri are expected to take a cumulative toll."

When my friend and I rode our bicycles across Missouri on the cross-country bike tour, we suffered one climb after another through the Ozarks in the center of the state .....   more »

I received an email from Jack Painter, an avid cyclist and advocate who lives in St. Louis. He's concerned, and rightly so, that the Tour of Missouri isn't getting adequate coverage in its home state. He was surprised, and so am I, that few cyclists on a local bike ride even knew about it.

Once again: The Tour of Missouri starts Tuesday in Kansas City and ends Sunday in St. Louis. It visits many points in between. It features many of America's top cyclists, as well as the winner of the 2007 Tour de France.

Here's Jack's email:

Worried? You and all cycling advocates should be. I won't go into great detail but, if I wasn't a daily reader of numerous cycling blogs, I would have no idea that a major cycling event is to be held here ...   more »

Here are some suggestions on where to watch the Tour of Missouri, beginning Tuesday in Kansas City and ending Sunday in St. Louis.

The Tour of Missouri website is linking the Adobe Live Tour Tracker (video, chatroom, GPS, VeloNews updates) and live video from Justin.tv (live video feed is expected to begin between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. CST on Wednesday, according to website).

CyclingNews will provide live updates from the Tour of Missouri as the race progresses. Also check out its pre-race coverage with stage maps and profiles and start list. VeloNews is also covering live ...   more »

The first big stage bicycle race for Missouri and one of the last for the Discovery Channel pro cycling team begins Tuesday in Kansas City.

The Tour of Missouri is the last-man-standing of three multi-stage bicycle races in the US that were supposed to launch this year but folded before reaching the starting line. (Tour of Utah and Montreal-Boston Tour didn't make it.)

Meanwhile, the Discovery Channel is sending some of its most popular cyclists to compete -- including Americans George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer, as well as Alberto Contador of Spain, winner of the 2007 Tour de France...   more »

Long before the owners of the pro cycling team sponsored by the Discovery Channel announced they were abandoning their search for sponsors, they had promised to race in the inaugural Tour of Missouri (Sept. 11-16).

Now they've announced that US cyclists Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie will be racing in Missouri, as will Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.

Other Discovery teammates slated to race in Missouri include Americans Tony Cruz, Jason McCartney, and John Devine, and Fuyu Li (China) and Yaroslav Popovych (Ukraine). ...   more »

Tour of Missouri organizers say nine North American cycling teams will compete among the 15 that will race around the state from Sept. 11 to 16.

In addition to the Discovery Channel team, which announced earlier, the North American teams are Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle, Toyota-United, HealthNet presented by Maxxis, Navigators, Colavita Oil/Sutter Homes, Jelly Belly, BMC and the USA National Team....   more »

(See Tour of Missouri news)

One of three major US stage races in 2007

Now the thousands of TransAmerica bicyclists who suffered through Missouri's Ozarks region in mid-summer heat can see how the pros handle it.

Organizers of the Tour of Missouri have released a general map and list of host cities for the inaugural event that's being launched as one of the top pro bike races in the country.

Although the timing of the race -- Sept. 11-16 -- might mean slightly cooler temperatures, that roller-coaster Missouri terrain should still be a factor. The cyclists will ride 600 miles in 6 stages, with starts or finishes in Kansas City, Clinton, Springfield, Branson, Lebanon, Columbia, Jefferson City, St. Charles and St. Louis.

Along with the Tour of California in February and the Tour de Georgia in April, the bike race is being sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale, which means there will be many world-class teams and cyclists in the peloton.

Sports marketing company Medalist Sports is organizing all three races, as well as the USA Pro Cycling Championships scheduled for the Labor Day weekend in Greenville, South Carolina.

Here's the breakdown:

Stage 1, Sept. 11 -- Kansas City to Kansas City, road race
The world-class international race will start in Missouri’s second largest city as cyclists will race an out-and-back course.

Stage 2, Sept. 12 -- Clinton to Springfield, road race
After an auto transfer, the race starts at the trailhead of Missouri’s famous Katy Trial cross-state bike path, and races to Missouri’s third-largest city.

Stage 3, Sept. 13 -- Branson, individual time trial
The caravan will make its way 40 miles south for an individual time trial in the hilly resort town of Branson.

Stage 4, Sept. 14 -- Lebanon to Columbia, road race
The caravan transfers north to the agricultural town of Lebanon for to race to the home to the University of Missouri.

Stage 5, Sept. 15 -- Jefferson City to St. Charles, road race
Cyclists race from the state's capital city through the wine region to the historic river city of St. Charles.

Stage 6, Sept. 16 -- St. Louis, circuit race
A criterium in the shadows of the Arch.

The exact bike race route will be released this spring, according to the press release.

Down among the names at the bottom of the press release is corporate development and sales director Mark Gorski, who I instantly remembered as a cycling gold medalist I saw at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. That was my destination the summer I was introduced to bicycling through the Missouri Ozarks.

Move over Tour de Georgia and Tour of California -- the Tour of Missouri is joining the ranks of the USA Cycling Professional Tour as an internationally sanctioned bicycle race.

What this means is that top pro teams that compete in Union Cycliste Internationale events in Europe can also ride in the stage race as it winds through Missouri between Kansas City and St. Louis next September.

This is just another indication that interest in bicycle racing is exploding in the US. No more dreary returns like those from the Tour duPont and Tour de Trump.

In February, an estimated 1.3 million bike racing fans watched the inaugural Tour of California, drawing an estimated $100 million into the host cities. The Tour de Georgia draws upwards of 800,000 and had an estimated economic impact of $26 million in 2006.

The newly created ...   more »