*St. Louis won't land a Major League Soccer team just yet, but it may not so far in the future. Real Salt Lake has settled their deal to stay in Utah, but recent talk about the team moving to St. Louis has accelerated talks about an expansion team moving in before too long. It sounds like much of the situation depends on whether or not the city will finance a stadium for an MLS team to play in, and the possibility is starting to look more promising. Jeff Cooper, the Alton lawyer leading the expansion bid said "I think we've shown the league and everybody involved we are extremely serious about it. Our intention is to get a team sooner rather than later."
Who knows? Is the MLS in St. Louis even a good idea?
*Professional cycling is coming to Missouri. The Tour of Missouri dates and places have been announced. The tour, which will be one of North America's top three professional cycling stage races, will begin Sept. 11 in Kansas City and conclude Sept. 16 in St. Louis. According to Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, professional cycling races in Georgia and California attracted about 600,000 and 1.2 million spectators, respectively.
"This is the largest sporting event in our state's history," he said. "The Tour of Missouri will give us the opportunity of showing off our beautiful state to spectators and racers from around the world."
The race has been sanctioned by USA Cycling and Union Cycliste Internationale, the sport's international governing body, with a 2.1 rating, one of the highest in North America.
Basically, the rating means that five teams from the Pro Tour will be in the field. This means that Team Discovery, the same team that Lance Armstrong won seven Tour de Frances for, is very likely to be in the area. The featured rider on this years Discovery squad is Levi Leipheimer. Leipheimer has finished in the top 10 in the Tour de France three times. Also featured in the race is Durango, Colorado resident Tom Danielson, winner of last year's Tour de Georgia. Danielson is Team Discovery's featured rider of the future. I've seen him ride before and he's pretty damn good, not to mention a great guy.
Other cities that will host the start and/or finish of a stage are Clinton, Springfield, Branson, Lebanon, Columbia, Jefferson City and St. Charles. In addition to the stages in Kansas City and St. Louis, the route will feature three point-to-point road stages and, in Branson, a time trial, in which riders start one at a time and race against the clock. The course will cover more than 600 miles.
This is an exciting event for sports in Missouri. Although the Show-Me-State isn't well known for its enthusiasm in cycling, it will be nice to stir that interest and hopefully spark more of it in Missouri's future. Do your best to support this event. I'll keep you updated on dates and times. Also, I've been attempting contact with Danielson so hopefully we'll be able to bring you a feature on him and what it's like to be a professional cyclist coming to ride in the heat of the Heartland.
Stay Tuned.
It's the weekend. Have you some fun.
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4 comments:
Where can I sign up for this race? I used to ride my bike when I was in grade school.
I would attend, but my Sonic Dyno bike wouldnt compete with Lance Armstrong.
I'm back and I'm in!!
BREAKING NEWS: Jevon Crudup HAS signed up for the tour and WILL ride in the race.
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