The third annual Tour of Missouri kicks off today at 2:30 CDT with a 75 mile crit in and around the city St. Louis. The event runs through next Sunday where it will finish in Kansas City. Visit the race website for more information of all kinds. Here is their overview of today’s stage 1:
For the first two years of the race, St. Louis served as the finish line for the Tour of Missouri. In 2009, the city will serve as the race’s starting point, befitting its nickname of the Gateway City. The first leg of the race will be a spectator-friendly circuit through the cosmopolitan streets of downtown and into the many picturesque neighborhoods that make St. Louis such a culturally diverse region. The St. Louis area offers a number of great places to ride from the Great River Road to the Katy Trail. There are a number of annual races and family-friendly events held in the region, including the very popular Moonlight Ramble in August and the Gateway Cup in early September.
Coverage of the race will be pretty extensive with 30 recaps daily on Versus (usually at 11 EDT), as well as live coverage of the event on www.universalsports.com.
Team OUCH will be well represented at the race, and here is their on presser on the competition:
OUCH Presented by Maxxis brings well-rounded roster to final stage race of the season. Oakland, CA – The OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis heads into the Tour of Missouri Monday with a balanced roster well suited to the hard, rolling course of the seven-day race.
“Missouri is definitely not a pure climber’s course,” said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. “For the overall, it favors riders who can get over the climbs but also time trial well.” For that reason, OUCH Presented by Maxxis has brought together a roster with both conventional overall contenders such as Rory Sutherland and Chris Baldwin, but also classics-style riders like Karl Menzies, Andrew Pinfold and U.S. criterium champion John Murphy, who could find themselves sprinting from breaks, or even contending for the overall title if a break sticks like it did in 2007, when 12 riders got off the front in Stage 2 and opened a gap of 16 minutes.
“Last year, with some of the bigger squads there controlling things, the race pretty much stayed together,” Tamayo noted. “This year, the field is even stronger.” Contending against the likes of Astana, Garmin-Slipstream, Columbia-HTC and Liquigas for the overall, OUCH Presented by Maxxis will send 2007 and 2008 NRC points champion Sutherland, as well as Baldwin and Floyd Landis.
The GC trio will have ample support from team captain Tim Johnson, as well as Bradley White, who had a strong Tour of Utah and followed that up with a very impressive and active U.S. National Road Race Championship effort. White will also be on the hunt for breaks. For the sprints and breaks, the team will look to Menzies, Murphy and Pinfold.
The Tour starts tomorrow in St. Louis and concludes next Sunday in Kansas City. The OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis for the Tour of Missouri:
Chris Baldwin, USA
Tim Johnson, USA
Floyd Landis, USA
Karl Menzies, TAS
John Murphy, USA
Andrew Pinfold, CAN
Rory Sutherland, AUS
Brad White, USA
The local Fox affiliate previews the ToM and got a few quotes from Floyd Landis. The piece includes video, here’s what Floyd had to say which amazingly has a quote on the “past”:
“I defended myself the best I could and as unhappy as I am with the outcome, it doesn’t change the fact that life goes on and I’ve got to put it behind me,” he says. “There were moments I wasn’t sure it was worth trying to come back or even trying to fight any more, but my hip was the main thing I was concerned with. Because that was going to affect me the rest of my life whether I was a cyclist or anything else.”
Results from the crit, which by the way out very own Rant will be attending where he will with any luck post updates to his twitter page, will be posted tomorrow morning along with a preview of tomorrow’s stage. Stay tuned!!
Meanwhile here is a picture from missourihotels of Floyd and the “wolfman” checking into the teams’ digs. Good luck OUCH!
As a side note, earlier this year the ToM was in danger of being cancelled, as potential victim of economic hard times. As part of an effort to implement cost savings in the state budget, state funding was slated to be withdrawn. Eventually the governor relented, and agreed to provide the funds.
So far, no word about next year.