INTERNATIONAL BICYCLE RACE PROPOSED THROUGH AREA

A Tennessee man leading a regional organization has approached the Missouri governor about developing a world-class bicycle race that could pass through the Cape Girardeau area.

Ray Bryant, executive director of the Memphis-based Lower Mississippi Delta Development Center, asked Gov. Mel Carnahan to endorse what Bryant wants to be the successor to the now-defunct Tour Du Pont, the internationally sanctioned U.S. equivalent to the Tour de France.

Bryant's organization is trying to develop a bicycle trail from St. Louis to New Orleans. He views the race as a way of publicizing the trail.

"In our dreams, what we'd like to do is stage an event right in the heart of the country," Bryant said. "We're working toward putting together a coalition of the seven states involved."

Bryant has approached the governors of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Only Gov. Don Sundquist of Tennessee has replied so far, and he has endorsed it.

Chris Sifford, a spokesman for Carnahan, said the governor has not yet made a decision.

Bryant said if the race gains the seven endorsements, the commission would hire a consultant to work out the details. He wants the event to start in 1999.

Bryant is still working out details for the bicycle trail, dubbed the Mississippi River Trail. It would extend from Ste. Genevieve to New Orleans using existing roads specially marked with the trail logo.

Each state is responsible for figuring out which roads to follow and would be responsible for marking the routes.

Mississippi and Kentucky have already designated their routes, Bryant said. Other states have nearly all their routes designated. Local officials voiced objections in only two places, Bryant said, Perry County and a county in Tennessee. In both counties, some local officials said they thought it would be too dangerous for bicyclists to ride on the preferred route.

In Tennessee, the locals agreed to the trail after authorities said the signs would tell bicyclists they were traveling at their own risk, Bryant said.

In Perry County, at a March 12 meeting, some local officials raised safety concerns about cyclists using Routes C and H, roads with no shoulders used by logging and coal trucks.

They suggested using Highway 61 instead.

Asked last week if the county has done any further study of the matter, Presiding Commissioner Karl Klaus said, "We really have nothing to do. How can the county control the state highways."

State officials have held up endorsement of the route until local officials are more agreeable, said Lori Stout of the Missouri Division of Tourism. "We don't want to force this route down their throats if they don't want it." she said.

Since the meeting, several people have written to Klaus, asking him to endorse Routes C and H for the trail.

For example, Judith Cureton of Cape Girardeau wrote that she has ridden both routes several times. Highway 61 "is not as pretty as Highway C, it has too much traffic, and the traffic is too fast," Cureton wrote. "I ride it only as a last resort to get to safer roads."

Stout said she fears if Perry County objects riders will stay on the Illinois side of the river, and Missouri will miss out on an opportunity.