Inaugural race will not visit the region

~ The 600-mile competition will alter its course year to year.

The inaugural Tour of Missouri will hit the state's three biggest cities and its largest tourist town. But the cycling event will hit only one of the state's four corners, leaving Southeast Missouri among the regions excluded this time around.

The 600-mile route for the event, scheduled for Sept. 11 through 16, was announced Thursday in a press conference in Kansas City, where the race will begin.

The first stage will start and end in Kansas City. The event then includes a stage from Clinton to Springfield, a time trial in Branson, a stage from Lebanon to Columbia, a stage from Jefferson City to St. Charles, and a concluding circuit stage in St. Louis that will end at the Gateway Arch.

"We're disappointed we couldn't get to all the places with the first year," said Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, whose office has worked for more than a year to bring the race to Missouri and coordinate it. "The route can be and will be altered in future years. The experience in other states has been that you do vary it over multiple events to hit more places."

The Tour of Missouri will complement the nation's top cycling stage road races in California and Georgia and join those events as part of the new USA Pro Cycling Tour. Race director Jim Birrell also is a managing partner of Medalist Sport, which manages the races in California and Georgia.

With stages expected to be in the 100-mile range and with Kinder's ties to Southeast Missouri, Cape Girardeau seemed like a possible choice to kick off a stage to St. Louis, which was announced as the finish line last October during a news conference.

But Kinder noted that it was important this time for the route hit the large population areas -- Kansas City, Springfield, St. Louis, Columbia and St. Charles all are in the state's 10 largest cities -- and the tourist town of Branson.

The cities that serve as overnight stops for the tour also had to make a commitment of $100,000 from either public or private funds, which also was a factor in identifying host-city candidates.

Kinder said the budget for the event is $3.7 million, with money also coming from sponsors such as Anheuser-Busch, Edward Jones and O'Reilly's. He said the search for sponsors goes on.

The event will have 15 professional teams.

"We're talking about the largest sporting event ever held in Missouri," Kinder said. "It's worthy of the year-plus our office has put into this."

The similar events in Georgia and California have drawn 600,000 and 1.2-million spectators respectively. The event is free to spectators, and Kinder encourages Southeast Missouri cycling enthusiasts to help the event finish in style.

"It will end under the Arch on a weekend in St. Louis when the Cardinals host the Cubs," he said. "This could be an event maybe approaching the Kentucky Derby."