Saturday, May 14th, 2011 the Tour de Grove will be racing though one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in St. Louis-The Grove. The professional bicycling race will feature the fastest male and female cyclists from the United States competing to win a overall purse of $25,000. It is the highest paying, single day race in Missouri. The race is part of the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar (NRC), and the USA Crits Series. Previous winners have included Pan-American Gold Medalist Daniel Halloway, former St. Louis native and professional Dan Schmatz and top US Professional Bronze Medalist Andrew Bajadali.
In addition to the bike races, there will be a 5k run, family events, kid races, and “ArtCrank” a national cycling poster art show. There will be outdoor activities all day Saturday and into the evening. The 5k run starts Saturday at 9:00am with an overall cash prize of $1700 and age group prizes. ArtCrank will begin Thursday and will be hosted by local Grove restaurant/bar Atomic Cowboy. The event will feature the talents of amazing local artists. The posters are priced reasonably so everyone can take home at least one.
The kids can get in on the fun as well! Children, ages 3 to 12, will be able to race or ride across the exact same finish line as the pros. Participants should arrive and register one hour prior to the start of the kids race. The kids race starts Saturday, May 14th at 2:30pm. Registration will close 15 minutes prior to the race. Racers will line up according to their age groups. The Big Wheel racers (ages 3 to 4) will ride the shortest distance and the start line will move back for each successive category. The top 3 finishers in each category will receive custom Tour de Grove Build-a-Bears from St. Louis’ own Build-a-Bear Workshop. The top three finishers in each race will receive a Build-a-Bear along with other great prize packages from the St. Louis Science Center and the City Museum.
Please visit these links for more information on how you can get involved with Tour de Grove:
Tour de Grove NCR cyclist registration
Tour de Grove 5k run registration
Tour de Grove street sprints and drag races registration
Tour de Grove kids race information
Volunteers are needed for the Tour de Grove races. Please sign up here.
Cyclists from 2010 Tour de Grove
Winners from the mens competition last year
Winners from the womens competition last year
Official Tour de Grove route
