Cape to seek spot as part of 2009 Tour of Missouri

Cape Girardeau will make another bid to host the Tour of Missouri bicycle race, area business and tourism officials said Monday after visiting two cities that took part in this year's race.

The tour, a weeklong event patterned on the Tour de France, ended Sunday in St. Louis. This year's race began in St. Joseph and included stops in Kansas City, Branson, Springfield, Rolla, Jefferson City and St. James.

A five-member delegation from Cape Girardeau watched the arrival of cyclists in Rolla on Thursday and the morning start from St. James on Friday, said Tracey Glenn, vice president for organization and leadership development for the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.

"We went and found out a lot of information, but we haven't sat down and decided what we want to do," Glenn said. "Cape Girardeau is going to apply as a host city for a start or a finish."

The city sought a spot on this year's calendar but was not selected, although race organizers added four towns to the lineup and extended the race for a day.

This year's race was the second running of the event, which is the pet economic development project of Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau. Jerry Dowell, executive director of the race and an aide to Kinder, did not return a message seeking comment about Cape Girardeau's chances and the timeline for deciding the 2009 route.

Along with Glenn, the Cape Girardeau delegation included Chuck Martin and Sarah Vickery from the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Capt. Roger Fields of the Cape Girardeau Police Department and Gordon Glaus, a local lawyer and avid bicyclist.

The logistics of winning a spot on the race schedule are daunting, with cities hosting the finish of a race stage expected to provide hotel rooms for the cyclists, their support teams and race officials. Typically, a city sponsoring the end of a race stage also puts on a street festival near the finish line.

Cities hosting the start of a race also put on an event so fans and media can get close to the racers and their teams for autographs and pictures.

"We learned that both are good, and will bring an impact to the community," Glenn said.

The expense involved is the biggest obstacle, she said. "Before we make any decisions about what we are going to do we need to sit down and evaluate things," Glenn said. "A finish is significantly more than a start in terms of fundraising."

Glaus said he believes the expense would be money well spent, drawing visitors and raising Cape Girardeau's profile. "I think we could do a very good job and it would be a very good thing," Glaus said. "It is really a festival atmosphere that surrounds this."

Finding a way to fit Cape Girardeau into the route could be the biggest problem facing organizers, but Glaus said the delegation from Cape Girardeau received strong feedback from representatives of Medalist Sports, the company that organizes and runs the race under a contract with the state.

"The route is going to have to change pretty significantly to include Cape," Glaus said. "But I do think it is a workable event."

The proposal from the city, which will be crafted by the CVB staff, will likely offer the city for either a start or finish, Vickery said. While a finish to a race stage tends to draw bigger crowds and includes the excitement of finding out which riders are leading, a stage start has many more opportunities to see the racers, she said.

"A stage start is where the public has the ability to mingle with the athletes," Vickery said. "A finish, while it is a fun atmosphere, the riders cross the finish line and then it's back to the hotels for dinner, bed and off to the next day."

This year's route was announced in January. The winner of this year's race was Christian Vande Velde, an Illinoisan who came in fifth in this year's Tour de France.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

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