I really should have blogged about his earlier, but word on the street is that Tour of Missouri is going to become an annual event. This is a rare opportunity for people in the states to get a glimpse of professional cycling. The race started this past Tuesday in Kansas City and is set to run 6 stages that travel through out the state. I just watched as the race made it's way down the street in front of my office to it's final stop for this stage in Columbia. Tomorrow the racers will come back to Jefferson City to start the second to last stage which ends in St. Charles. It is a pretty sweet event and although it seems to go by pretty fast, I think it is still a notable and cool experience. So, if you live anywhere close to Jefferson city or along the route to St. Charles you should check it out.The final stage will be a circuit around St. Louis on Sunday. I will be at the kick off of stage 5 tomorrow, so I hope to have more pictures and information after the weekend. In the mean time you can watch the race live on the Tour of Missouri website. This website also has lots of cool route maps and other articles about the racers.

Links:
Live Video
Live Text Updates
Tour Tracker, should have GPS information for the last two stages
ToM Update Dashboard

More images after the break

Crowd in Jeff City