Tour of Missouri spectators can expect to walk to reach downtown

EDITOR'S NOTE: The time when shuttle service will begin at West Park Mall and the Show Me Center has been corrected.

Getting around downtown Cape Girardeau will be difficult Sept. 8 when the Tour of Missouri bicycle race visits the city and parking restrictions will mean several blocks of walking for spectators, organizers said Thursday.

The local organizing committee is urging people to use two shuttle sites, at West Park Mall and the Show Me Center, to avoid downtown traffic. A street festival with a health and wellness fair, entertainment and bicycle races for children will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the parking lot near the finish line on Main Street at Independence Street.

Stage 2 of the 2009 Tour of Missouri will begin at 11 a.m. in Ste. Genevieve, Mo. The race will feature 120 riders from 15 teams who will ride 112.4 miles to Cape Girardeau. Organizers are preparing for as many as 30,000 spectators to be on hand by the time the racers arrive between 3 and 4:15 p.m.

Preparing for the crowd will be similar to getting ready for a parade or a visit from a figure such as President Bill Clinton in 1996 or vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin last year, said Lt. Tracy Lemonds of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Parking restrictions and street closures will begin at 6 a.m. in the downtown area, Lemonds said. Parking along the riders' approach to downtown along East Cape Rock Drive and North Main Street will be prohibited after noon.

The city will post signs noting parking restrictions the day before the race. Police will attempt to contact people with improperly parked cars but violators will be towed as a last resort as the race time approaches, he said.

Old Town Cape is contacting business owners downtown to explain the traffic plan, Lemonds said. Downtown employees who park in private off-street lots not being dedicated to tour use will be allowed to enter if they arrive early, he said, but those employees may not be able to leave when they want if the time is close to when the riders will arrive.

"We want to try to inconvenience them as little as possible," Lemonds said.

The shuttle service will begin at 11 a.m., said Tracey Glenn, vice president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce and chairwoman of the organizing committee. Two buses will run throughout the afternoon from the lot in front of the old Steve & Barry's store at West Park Mall and from the Show Me Center, she said.

"We are really going to recommend that if it is at all possible for people to take advantage of the shuttle service," Lemonds said. "Parking is going to be very limited in the area, and you may end up walking several blocks."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

43 S. Main St., Cape Girardeau, MO