Tour Of Missouri: Political Chicanery

(First, congratulations to Dave Zabriske for winning the overall title. Good guys finishing first...love that)

The following statement is shocking coming from me, but I'm on board with a Republican, at least on this issue.

The Tour of Missouri bike race is ranked one of the best stage races in the world outside of Europe, and yet the Democratic governor of Missouri is trying to scuttle some of the funding:

"Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon hasn't exactly thrown his support toward continuing the race. The Democrat, voted into office last November, has taken a few shots at the Tour, and even tried to pull a $1.5 million tourism allocation for this year's race — a move that resulted in over 1,000 e-mails from race supporters.

Nixon has been at odds with Republican Lt. Governor Pete Kinder, leader of the state's tourism commission and a huge Tour of Missouri proponent. After failing to entice Nixon to watch one of the race stages, he plans to send a letter to the governor on Monday to set a meeting and talk about its future.

"It seems to build each year in interest, in excitement and viewership," Kinder said. "I think if we can put aside other differences and pull together, we can pull off an even better 2010 Tour of Missouri.""

That might be the most sensible thing I've heard a Republican say in years. I wonder what the Governor's side of the story is.