Tour of Missouri

So...I have been dying to blog about the Tour of Missouri but have been trying to figure out the best way to go about it. Do I start from the current day or do I start from the race last year? I wanted to write about how Chicchi crossed the finish line ahead of Cavendish yesterday but thought...hmmm, no one really knows where I am coming from. I'm thinking that there would be questions like...what is the Tour of Missouri? Who is Chicchi? Cavendish? So...like the Sound of Music says, "Let's start at the very beginning".

For those of you that don't know me, I am a HUGE cycling fan. I'm not quite sure when it started. I have always loved watching sports. I still remember watching football games with my brother and dad and my mom asking what a touchdown was. My love for sports grew over the years as I watched various sports on TV and attended games...OK, so I don't like watching bowling or golfing. Sorry, not my cup of tea.

Things changed when I got married. My schedule became a little strange because of the show schedule, and....ummm, well, Adam just doesn't watch sports on TV. I decided that I needed to pick one thing to follow and just go from there. My choice? The Tour de France! Adam knows that for three weeks , every July, I will be glued to the television. I will be waking up at 4 AM to watch riders climb L'Alpe D'Huez. I will be taping various stages when I miss a stage due to a show. The TV will always be tuned on to the Tour, even if I have already watched the stage, as background noise. I completely immerse myself in the Tour and make up for my lack of watching all year. Some may call me crazy. I like the term "dedicated".

A little over 2 years ago I found out that we were going to have a Tour of Missouri cycling race. (Picture the Tour de France but 1/3 the length and no killer mountains ). My first reaction? YES!!! I MUST be involved! I called up Craig, my friend that owns the only bike store in town, Downhill Bikes and asked if he knew anything about it. He told me to call Dathan to see if I could get involved. Dathan is the Chairman of the LOCs for the Branson leg of the race. I went to the next meeting with the Local Organizing Committees (LOC) and was basically told that I was now the Ancillary Events Chairman. Ummmm, ok.....ummmm, what exactly are ancillary events? I later found out that it was comprised of random events, school education and the health fair. Gee, is that all? SO....I went to the meetings and met a lot of wonderful people as we planned for the inaugural Tour of Missouri.

Branson was given the Time Trial for its leg of the race. Craig and Dathan made a killer course that showcased a lot of our Ozark hills. As for the events that were planned. We had a Bike Safety Rodeo for the younger kids the Saturday before the race. The day of the race we had a Celebrity Trike Race and the Hughes Brothers (WAHOOOOO) sang the National Anthem. They were told that it was the best Anthem that they had heard at a race! YES! We so ROCK! Of course there was the normal block party the night before and all of the events the day OF the event. I'll write about that in the next blog and will add pics. For more info on the Tour you can go to http://www.tourofmissouri.com/