Cycling boosters hope new race puts Mo. on tourism map

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Doping scandals. Skittish sponsors. Canceled races.

Life after Lance Armstrong has been anything but smooth for pro cycling, which this time of year is normally celebrating the annual Tour de France. Instead, the sport is struggling to preserve its public relevance, financial footing and athletic integrity amid increasing allegations of a rampant culture of cheating.

So what in the name of Floyd Landis is the Show-Me State doing rolling out the red carpet -- not to mention more than $1 million of taxpayer money -- for the inaugural Tour of Missouri, a six-day, 600-mile stage race that will bring some of the world's top riders here in mid-September?

For Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, the answer is simple: a global marketing bonanza the likes of which Missourians have never seen.

"This is the greatest opportunity we have ever had to brand Missouri to a national and international audience," said Kinder, who is also chairman of the Missouri Tourism Commission.

The Tour of Missouri is scheduled to start in Kansas City on Sept. 11 and conclude in St. Louis five days later, with stops in Clinton, Springfield, Branson, Lebanon, Columbia, Jefferson City and St. Charles.

The tour joins similar high-profile races in Georgia, where this year's event drew 600,000 spectators, and California, where 1.2 million fans waited outside for the chance to glimpse a few seconds of colorful blurs speeding past.

A Georgia-based company that manages both the California and Georgia events is handling the Missouri race.

Other states have had similar aspirations, with less than lofty results.

In Utah, organizers scuttled this year's pro tour stop after just one previous race. Connecticut has canceled its tour stop the past two years.

Even the Tour de Georgia, a favorite of Armstrong in his march to seven French titles, teetered on shaky financial ground. Lacking a title sponsor, this year's race was in doubt until AT&T came forward two weeks before the race with a $500,000 commitment.

A steady succession of doping controversies has cycling corporate benefactors running scared.

Though much of those woes have focused on European riders, doping charges also have ensnared the sport's two biggest American stars.

Landis, the 2006 Tour de France winner, is fighting a positive test for synthetic testosterone and could have his title stripped.

And a new book making waves in the cycling world further details a supposed hospital-bed confession of steroid use by Armstrong as he battled cancer.

The Discovery Channel, which sponsors the team for which Armstrong competed before his 2005 retirement, is dropping its cycling contract after this season.

The Discovery squad is the marquee entry to date for the Missouri race, which will feature 120 riders from five European and 10 American teams.

Less than two months before the Sept. 11 start, race organizers have yet to attract a title sponsor, though such Missouri businesses as Monsanto, financial adviser Edward Jones and Drury Hotels have signed on in lesser roles.

Efforts continue to recruit a sponsor whose name can be attached to the race, said Kinder. But he assured that even without a last-minute infusion of corporate cash to help offset the event's $2.8 million budget, the race is on.

Missouri's strong organizing efforts have caught the pro cycling community's attention, said Sean Weide, a spokesman for the Toyota-United team, which recently committed to the Missouri race. Weide emphasized the importance of the tour's strong support from state government, which will help oversee details ranging from highway closings to emergency medical needs.

But he also acknowledged that the taint of performance-enhancing drug use has made pro cycling a harder sell among the U.S. masses.

"The perception of the mainstream public is that cycling is rampant with doping," he said. "That's certainly a hurdle to overcome."

Community leaders in some of the smaller towns along the race route hope the tour generates long-term benefits.

In Clinton, starting point for the Day Two stage race, popular chatter about the tour has largely taken a back seat to more local efforts such as a recent Independence Day celebration, said Megan McCoy, executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce.

Locals are beginning to get excited about the arrival of more than 100 elite athletes and their support teams, said McCoy. But she and her neighbors are more interested in the amateur cyclists whom residents hope will return to Clinton, the current terminus of the 239-mile Katy Trail State Park.

"We want to make sure people are aware the trail is here, so they can come back and see us," she said.