Local lawmakers already pushing Nixon on 2010 Tour of Missouri

It’s barely been a week since downtown Kansas City, from Crown Center to the Westside, was lined with cycling fans, ringing their cowbells and clambering on top of anything stable to get a good picture of the international athletes racing in the Tour of Missouri.

But the political press for the 2010 race has already started. 

This summer, cyclists rightfully got their spandex in a bundle when Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon appeared poised to ax $1.5 million in state funding for Tour. A huge outcry from fans apparently persuaded Nixon that shortchanging the race — to stick it to his Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who’s been the tour’s main booster — wasn’t the best idea.

So the show went on. But, even as the racers lined up, there was a sense that the event is living on borrowed time. Why? This was the final year of a three-year contract with the state of Missouri for title sponsorship of the event.

So, as the throng gathered at Crown Center for the start of the Kansas City stage on September 13, Kinder was there, pleading with spectators to write to the governor and express their support for the Tour. Yesterday, four Kansas City lawmakers did just that.

Read their letter after the jump.