Lance Armstrong's team will participate in Tour of Missouri

While the Tour of Missouri isn't scheduled to start until Labor Day, it has already drawn the attention of some of the world's top stage racing teams. Event organizers announced Thursday that Team Astana will participate in the third annual cycling race across Missouri.

Astana is the fifth team to confirm its participation in the race, and Kellan True, cycling enthusiast and mechanic at Cycle Werx in Cape Girardeau, said the team is a great addition to the lineup.

"They are the strongest team in the world, there is no doubt about that," True said. "Hopefully we'll get to see some big names from their team show up. That would be very big if they were to come down here."

Members of Team Astana include seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, this year's Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer, as well as the 2007 Tour de France winner, Alberto Cantador of Spain. True said Cantador's appearance in the inaugural Tour of Missouri after his win in France is evidence that big names may come here.

Team Astana will be joining previously announced top United States-based teams Garmin-Slipstream and Columbia-High Road, which both feature former winners. Christian Vandevelde of Garmin-Slipstream finished fourth in the 2008 Tour de France and won first place in last year's Tour of Missouri. Columbia-High Road's team features 2007 Missouri winner George Hincapie.

The official list of riders for the 15-team Tour of Missouri will be announced in August.

International and national federations for cycling have ranked the three-year-old Tour of Missouri one of the top five events outside Europe. Cape Girardeau is one of 11 host cities selected for the professional cycling race Sept. 7 to 13. The racers will start in St. Louis. Cape Girardeau will be the host city at the end of the second stage.

True said the tour is a great thing for the area.

"It just shines light and brings a big part of the scene to a small sport. It is growing, but this does help the sport grow. To come down here to Southeast Missouri where cycling isn't a big sport," he said, "may boost the scene here also."

cwest@semissourian.com

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