Parkville Rides Again
The Tour of Missouri will ride once again through downtown Parkville and city officials are happy at the prospect.
The Tour of Missouri, a race run by the same organizers of the Tour de Georgia and the Amgen Tour of California, was billed as the third highest profile domestic race in the United States. Last week, state officials announced that this year’s race will run from September 9-14 and will feature a stage through Parkville.
“I’m very exciting that it’s coming through Parkville,” said Ward 2 Alderman Gia McFarlane. McFarlane heads the ad-hoc committee for the board that is responsible for planning the event in town. McFarlane said that the exposure Parkville gets for the event is immeasurable. She pointed out that weeks after the race’s conclusion, Parkville was featured on the cover of Road Magazine – one of the top cycling magazines in the country.
“The racers really liked coming through here,” McFarlane said. “They really talked it up and we were one of the few downtowns that had crowds like we did.”
McFarlane said that Parkville was teaming with neighboring cities and Platte County to make the tour more visible in the county as a whole.
“Platte County Parks Department is dedicating a trail (the Prairie Creek Greenway) that day over by Platte City, so they can get people to the dedication that will be watching the race,” McFarlane said.
In Parkville, McFarlane says they are still in the early stages of planning. She said that a goal is to involve downtown merchants, but she said that a survey about last year’s race only netted one response. Still, McFarlane said, she was sure that this year’s event would be just as successful.
Missouri officials estimate that the 2007 Tour of Missouri had a $26 million impact statewide, although the Missouri Development Finance Board ran a loss of about $330,000 due to lack of sponsorship. According to the state’s Tourism Board, more than 367,000 spectators turned out for the event – many from outside the state. In the first stage alone, nearly 40 percent of the visitors were reportedly from outside the Kansas City area.
This year, Lt. Governor Kinder said the would be bigger and better than last year’s event. More than 120 cyclists from 15 of the world’s elite professional teams will compete in this year’s race.
“Again, the great state of Missouri will play host to these world class athletes from more than 20 countries this September,” Kinder said. “This year, we’ve worked to make the course more challenging and with a few new twists, including new terrain, new cities, homage to our Armed Forces on September 11th and another grand finale in St. Louis.”
After several pre-events in the Kansas City metro area, Stage 1, Monday, September 8th, will start in new host city St. Joseph, and pose a bigger challenge for cyclists through rolling terrain along the Missouri River before a circuit finish in Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza district for the second straight year. Other stages include Clinton to Springfield; A Branson stage; Lebanon to Rolla; St. James to Jefferson City; Hermann to St. Charles and a St. Louis only finale that finishes under the Gateway Arch.
Missouri state officials have announced their intention to support the Tour for three years, with the intention of making it an ongoing annual event.