Thursday, May 20, 2010

Tour of Missouri dead due to political bad blood? (updated)

Posted by on Thu, May 20, 2010 at 2:05 PM

click to enlarge No Tour of Missouri ... no Lance Armstrong.
  • No Tour of Missouri ... no Lance Armstrong.

Update (2:05 p.m. May 20): On Wednesday, our sister paper the Riverfront Times reported that bad blood between Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder could lead to the demise of the Tour of Missouri cycling race.

Tour of Missouri chair Mike Weiss told the RFT that the governor and the Division of Tourism had ignored his repeated requests to meet and discuss a $1 million appropriate that the race is losing and the future of the event.

A spokesman for Nixon's office claimed he was unaware of the requests. The Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation called bullshit and released documents showing a request on May 13 to meet with the governor and tourism officials.

The Tour's vice chair, Brent Hugh, asks in the article if

Nixon's spokesman is "lying, misleading, confused, or just incompetent?"

Tour

officials are still pushing for a meeting with the governor, noting

that Kinder resigned as chair of the Tour of Missouri, handing off the

race's operations to the Missouri Bicycle Racing Association. 

In

a statement issued today, Weiss says:

"Maybe Governor Nixon just hasn't gotten the memo. He

seems to be fighting against something, when all we want is to do is

work

with him -- to make a great event for the state that can be

part of his

legacy."

***
Original story (2:56 p.m. May 19): A pissing match between

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder may

spell the end of the Tour of Missouri bike race, according to our sister

paper the Riverfront

Times.

The RFT reports that the Tour is losing a

$1 million contribution from the state Division of Tourism and

10-member Tourism Commission, which had to take away its sponsorship

after getting its budget slashed from about $20 million to $13.5

million. But that's not what's killing the race.

The RFT reports that animosity between Nixon, a Democrat, and Kinder, a Republican, could be keeping the governor from fighting to save the race. An unnamed race official told the RFT: "Nixon and Kinder can't stand each

other, and so if Kinder wants the race, that means it won't happen. The

appropriation could have been a dollar, and still Nixon wouldn't have

gone for it."

Nixon and Kinder are poised

to face off in the 2012 gubernatorial race. Nixon's office denied that

the governor's rivalry with Kinder had anything to do with the way the Tourism

Commission spends the state tourism budget.

"The discretion on how to spend the state tourism budget was made by

the Tourism Commission, and the governor supports that decision,"Nixon's deputy press secretary, Sam Murphey, told the RFT.



Lance

Armstrong was among the cyclists expected expected to come to

the Show-Me State for the five-day, 500-mile race that was slated to

begin August 31.

Read

the full story here.

Image via Hase.

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