Stage will be busy at Tour of Missouri finish line

Spectators will have plenty of entertainment options while they're waiting for riders in the Tour of Missouri to reach the Stage 2 finish line in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Performances by school choirs, line dancing and tricycle and bicycle races for children will fill the time between the beginning of festivities at noon and the arrival of the racers sometime between 3 and 4:15 p.m.

Finding performers willing to take the stage wasn't difficult, said Tracey Glenn, vice president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce and chairwoman of the local organizing committee. The difficult part was making sure the performers were scheduled so everyone could attend and still accommodate the needs of race organizers for use of the stage, she said.

"Everybody knows the more different types of events you have, the more different types of people are going to be there," Glenn said.

Organizers are expecting up to 30,000 people on Sept. 8 to crowd downtown Cape Girardeau near the finish line on Main Street just south of Independence Street. The Tour of Missouri, in its third year, is a cross-state bicycle race held over seven days. Riders will be racing from St. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau on a 112.4 mile course.

A street festival begins at noon. Shuttle buses from West Park Mall and the Show Me Center will begin running at 11 a.m.

Groups performing on stage include the Shere Khan percussion group from Cape Girardeau Central Middle School, the Notre Dame Regional High School choir and the Chateau Girardeau Senior Line Dancers.

Saint Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital are gold sponsors of the local festival and will be on hand with a health and wellness fair. Both hospitals are also sponsoring races for children.

Saint Francis will sponsor tricycle races, with a 30-yard race for ages 3 and 4 and a 50-yard race for children 5 and 6. Those races will be held at 12:30 p.m. Helmets are required to participate. Pre-registration is recommended but not required.

Older children can participate in bicycle races sponsored by Southeast Missouri Hospital. The 150-yard sprint races will be on the final portion of the Tour of Missouri course. For ages 7 to 9, the race will be on single-speed BMX bikes. The 10- to 12-year-old group will ride multispeed bicycles, while the 13- to 15-year-olds and the 16-and-older group will be able to race either single-speed or multispeed bikes.

Races will begin at 12:50 p.m. Pre-registration is required.

Registration forms for both sets of races are online at www.visitcape.com/tom.

The next step, Glenn said, is an advertising push to build the crowd.

"I think the measure of success will be found just talking to the average citizen and seeing what they thought," Glenn said. "A good-sized crowd will be a measure of success, but I think that if people walk away with a good feeling about the event that it will be a success."

In other Tour-related news, the Cape Girardeau license office at 112 S. Spanish St. will be closed Sept. 8 because Spanish Street will be closed to traffic.

Tour of Missouri entertainment schedule

__Performances on the Awards Stage in the Main Street parking lot:__

Noon Shere Khan (Central Middle School percussion group)

12:20 p.m Southeast Missouri Hospital Demonstration

12:40 p.m Jackson High School Band

1 p.m Saint Francis Medical Center demonstration

1:20 p.m Notre Dame Regional High School Choir

1:40 p.m Southeast Missouri Hospital Demonstration

2 p.m Chateau Girardeau Senior Line Dancers

2:20 p.m Saint Francis Medical Center demonstration

2:40 p.m Cape Central High School Chamber Choir

12:30-5 p.m. Street Festival Exhibitor Booths open

Source: Tour of Missouri Local Organizing Committee

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent Address:

43 S. Main St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

On the Net

* Local festival events: www.visitcape.com/tom

* Tour of Missouri: www.tourofmissouri.com