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Thoughts about Stage 1

As Stage 2 of the Tour of Missouri begins, here's some random thoughts about State 1 of the race:

• It wasn't surprising that there was a mass sprint finish, which was won by Cuban Ivan Dominguez. The big boys of Discovery Channel -- Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie -- were safely nestled in the peloton and were awarded the same time as the winner.
• The Missouri Highway Patrol estimated the crowd for Stage 1 as 40,000. It's not as many as the Kansas City Chiefs would draw on a fall afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium, but it's considerably more than the Kansas City Royals normally draw for one of their home games at Kauffman Stadium. “It’s a heck of a start for us,” Rick Hughes, president of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association, told the Kansas City Star. “Just getting started, this year the impact is probably a couple of million dollars. But in the Tour de Georgia, in the fourth year they estimated $300 million across the state. ”
• I'm still not sure how well rural Missouri will support the race. I think they'll be good crowds at the end of the stage in Springfield and at tomorrow's time trial in Branson. Missouri is called the Show-Me State for a reason, and Tour of Missouri organizers have a big selling job to do outside the state's urban areas.

In addition to this blog and the links on the right side of this page, there's lots of other great resources for following the race. Here's a few of them, some of which I've mentioned before, but some are new:

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Kansas City Star
• (Springfield, Mo.) News-Leader
• Tour of Missouri racer Dan Schmatz's blog. Schmatz is a native of the St. Louis area.
• Missouri Bicycle Federation. MoBikeFed also has wallpaper available for your computer here.
  
• Spare Cycles

Have fun and enjoy the Tour of Missouri

Labels: cycling, racing, Tour of Missouri

Roger 1 comments 10:53 AM

Comments:

I thought stage one was interesting. The venue could not have been better, and I talked with several riders from DFL/Cyclingnews... and on Navigators and they said the course was hillier than advertised. Thats good.

I also think the "health fair" could have had better participation and organization, as on some side streets it looked rather sparse.

Otherwise, for the first year... I thought it a nice turnout and a nice result. Keep up the blogs.

# posted by  Funknuggets : 10:13 AM

 

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