Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Once upon a time, the Tour of Missouri was a big deal. It was the second-biggest bike race in the United States. Tour de France winners crossed the pond to compete in it. It brought in an estimated $38 million in revenue to the state last year. The race was even depicted on the cover of AT&T’s 2009 Greater St. Louis White Pages.
Of course, that was before the state cut the race’s funding from $1.5 million to zero earlier this year. The Tour of Missouri, initially slated for this month, crashed by the roadside and unceremoniously died in late May. Missouri Division of Tourism deputy director Bob Hain points to the recession. “We sustained quite a large budget cut,” he says. “We couldn’t approve [the race] once we found out how deep the cut was.”
But some are saying that’s not the whole story.
“My understanding is that Gov. Nixon didn’t want to see it happen,” says Mike Weiss, owner of Big Shark Bicycle Company and the one-time chair of the race. “It was a politically motivated decision disguised as a tourism issue.”
Weiss isn’t the only one who noticed the obvious political angle: Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder—who could face Nixon in the 2012 gubernatorial race—championed the race since its inception in September 2007. The governor may not have wanted a Republican foe to reap all of that free attention come election time.
Weiss and the rest of the statewide cycling community are still in mourning. “I was alarmed that [Nixon] wouldn’t have a meeting or have his staff take a meeting with us,” says Weiss. “I don’t think the governor actually knew enough about the race to understand what he was killing. It’s like he threw away a winning lottery ticket. I’m more than disappointed—it makes you cynical.”
