Today the details for the 2008 Tour of Missouri were announced. September 8-14 are the dates. The big news is that the success of the inaugural race has resulted a seventh stage in 2008. New cities added are St. Joseph, Rolla, and St. James.

The biggest news for the KC area is that our stage has been altered significantly. Last year Kansas City hosted an out-and-back stage giving us both the start and finish honors, similar to St. Louis. This year the grand depart will be in St. Joseph, and KC will only be a finish city. So the festival atmosphere here will probably be less than last year.

KC drew the most out of state visitors and experienced the biggest economic impact in 2007, so it’s a surprise that our role was reduced for 2008. Possible reasons include rumored disagreements between the local organizing committee and Tour officials, as well as rumblings that sending the race to St. Joe was a move by the governor and lieutenant governor to shore up political support ahead of a big election.

• 2008 Tour of Missouri info
• 2007 Annual report (PDF)