Smooth Ride

What is MoDOT's role in the 2009 Tour of Missouri? This week's MoDOT Minute explains how we help the race run smoothly while minimizing the impact of road closures for drivers.

Check the MoDOT Minute each week for 60 seconds of your latest transportation headlines in Missouri.

Just Like Riding a Bike

I’m not much of a bike rider. As a kid, I lived on my bicycle, but not anything that I’ve kept up with as I’ve gotten older – a bit lazy when it comes to pedaling up hills! So when I was assigned as MoDOT’s project manager for the Tour of Missouri, I was looking forward to learning a lot about a subject that was definitely new to me.

Now, in our third year of the Tour of Missouri, I’m hooked! After watching these professional athletes climb the hills, handle the curves and attack Missouri’s mountains (we really do have some out there!), they have my complete respect and admiration.

When you stand along the race route and watch the cyclists, it’s amazing what is required of them in this sport – strength, endurance, concentration, teamwork. The race happens to be the largest professional sporting event in the state of Missouri, and guess what, it’s free!

Sept. 7 – beginning in St. Louis, through Sept. 13 – ending in Kansas City, cyclists from more than 20 countries will be traversing our state at about 30 miles per hour as they move from east to west. It’s a well-oiled production and a unique opportunity as millions of eyes and ears watch the event throughout the world.

Up for being outdoors in the beautiful September sunshine? Check it out! More information about specific routes and times is available on the MoDOT Web site, along with a link to the Tour of Missouri site. And thanks to MoDOT’s primary responsibility, which is to help plan a safe route for participants and onlookers and then to help motorists travel safety and efficiently during the race, this should be another successful event for Missouri.

And I should clarify – “I’m hooked” as in hooked on watching and enjoying a new sport, not as in riding my bike again, but that could happen – never say never!

Getting Ready to Race

When the gun is fired Sept. 7 in St. Louis, the third annual Tour of Missouri will begin -- moving along more than 600 miles of Missouri's roads before ending in Kansas City Sept. 13. As the MoDOT Tour of Missouri project coordinator, I'm teaming up with a variety of highway and traffic experts and public information co-workers around the state to take care of our two primary responsibilities.

First, we've worked with other partners to identify a race route that's safe and attractive for both the professional cyclists and those who will watch along the roads. We consider things like work zones, traffic hazards and construction projects. Most of the course is planned on low-volume, rural routes where hills and curves offer the American and foreign atheltes the challenges they like.

Second, we make sure the traveling public will be informed of the traffic interuptions throughout the seven-day event by coordinating traffic management plans with local communities and law enforcement agencies. We make plans to get the word out so those that want to avoid traffic delays can do so.

We also helped the Missouri Tourism Division by creating host city signs. These signs are being put up on the current city limit sign posts along key routes leading in and out of the communities that will be hosting a race start or finish.

We’ve worked hard to help make this a successful event for our state, and as the race goes along, safety for the traveling public and the cyclists is our main concern.

We're proud the national and international race coverage will highlight our state and that Missouri’s highways will be on display throughout the world!

You'll find race information, race route details and photographs at http://www.tourofmissouri.com/ and http://www.modot.org/.