September 7, 2009 (St. Louis, Missouri) – The Tour of Missouri, a 612-mile/979km, seven-day world-class professional cycling race, begins today with the 120.7km St. Louis Circuit Race,120.7km, a new kickoff point for the third Tour of Missouri on Labor Day Weekend, including live web telecasts from September 7-13.

With 118 competitors and 15 teams the race will feature defending-champion Christian Vande Velde of the Garmin-Slipstream team (Lemont, Ill.), and teammate and current U.S. national time trial champion David Zabriskie; U.S. Professional Champion and 2007 race champion George Hincapie, 10-time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish of Great Britain, three-time world time trial champion Mick Rogers of Australia and former Italian national champion in the time trial Marco Pinotti, all of the Columbia-HTC team.

There are 13 Canadians racing including Michael Barry (Columbia-HTC), Andrew Pinfold (OUCH), Zach Bell and David Veilleux with Kelly Benefit Strategies, Will Routley (Jelly Belly), and Planet Energy with eight riders such as Keven Lacombe, Andrew Randell, Francois Parisien, Martin Gilbert and Ryan Roth directed by the legendary Steve Bauer.

The race also features Thor Hushovd of Norway, the Tour de France sprint jersey winner and teammate Henrich Haussler of Germany, a Tour de France stage winner, both of the Cervelo Test Team; and Italy’s Franco Pellizotti, the best climber’s champion, from the Liquigas-Cannondale team – complete roster here.

In an unprecedented leap forward for the event, the race will be broadcast on multiple broadcast channels for 2009. Nationally, the event will air nightly with a 30-minute recap show on Versus, at midnight central time. Regionally, the event will be telecast on Fox Sports – Midwest and Fox Sports – Kansas City with a 30-minute wrap-up show, airing at various times between 10:30pm and midnight.

The Tour of Missouri also will be aired daily live on multiple carriers, including www.universalsports.com and www.tourofmissouri.com, as well as local partner affiliates in St. Louis, www.kmov.com and www.kmbc.com. The live webcast will air approximately two hours before each stage finish.

2009 Tour of Missouri Stages
Stage 1 – Monday, September 7 – St. Louis – 120.7km
Stage 2 – Tuesday, September 8 – Ste. Genevieve – Cape Girardeau – 180.9km
Stage 3 – Wednesday, September 9 – Farmington – Rolla – 183.9km
Stage 4 – Thursday, September 10 – St. James – Jefferson City – 175.7km
Stage 5 – Friday, September 11 – Sedalia (ITT) – 30.5km
Stage 6 – Saturday, September 12 – Chillicothe – St. Joseph – 177.4km
Stage 7 – Sunday, September 13 – Kansas City – Kansas City – 116.4km