Kansas Citians come out in droves to party with the Tour of Missouri
At the Capitol in Jefferson City, the Tour of Missouri bicycle race has become a political football, a passive-aggressive battle between Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder (a Tour booster) and Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon (who threatened to pull the state’s funding for the event this year).
In Kansas City on Sunday, the Tour was more like a massive tailgating bash, with roving revelers cruising downtown on foot and by bike, ringing cowbells and dancing in the streets.
The festivities started on Saturday morning, with several hundred local amateurs riding up to 50 miles on quiet streets for the Tour’s official charity event, the AIDS Bicycle Challenge. When the pros showed up the next day, though, those sleepy streets were packed with cowbell-toting cycling enthusiasts who followed the race from its start in St. Louis; families on tandem bicycles who took in the spectacle over picnic lunches; and even tattooed rabble-rousers, who shucked off their shirts and chased the spandexed athletes though the Westside.
