Big-time bicycle racing is returning to a state where world bicycle championships and endurance records were set 120 years ago. World-class professional bicyclists will be racing for 600 miles through Missouri next September in the Tour of Missouri, which organizers say will instantly be one of the top three stage-races in the country. Similar state races are held in Georgia and California. The state tourism division is putting up 250-thouand dollars for the event. Tourism commisison chairman Peter Kinder, the Lieutenant Governor, says communities the racers will go through also are being asked to spend some money . He says organizers are in the “early stages” of lining up communities that will be hosts for overnight stops. He says those communities taking part will be asked to make “some commitment.” The race will be run next September 11th through the 16th. Missouri became internationally-known as a bicycling state in the 18-80s when world championships were run in the little town of Clarkville, north of St. Louis, and where a bicyclist named Stillman Whittaker on one of those old-fashioned high-wheeled “Ordinaries” in 1886 set a world record by covering 300 miles in less than 24 hours.
