I’ll leave analysis to my learned colleague. For now, here’s the big news:

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and the organizers of the Tour of Missouri, Sept. 7-13 are on a roll. They’ve added Astana, the team of Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador and Chris Horner to those who have committed to our little race.

Rosters won’t be finalized until August, but Astana general manager Johan Bruyneel said that in a statement he would bring “a very good team.” Bruyneel directed the Discovery Channel team, which competed in the first Tour of Missouri and included on its roster Contador, fresh from his Tour de France victory, Leipheimer and George Hincapie, who won the race.

Other teams that have committed to the race in Missouri include Columbia-High Road, for whom Hincapie rides; Garmin-Slipstream, which includes 2008 Missouri winner Christian VandeVelde; Cervelo, whose roster includes 2008 Tour de France champ Carlos Sastre; and Liquigas.

In case you missed it Wednesday, VandeVelde won a stage of Paris-Nice, one of the most prestigious seven-day races in France.

Will Lance be here? Tough to say. Diametrically opposed political forces will have to make peace. As part of his LIvestrong message, Lance is an embryonic stem cell research advocate. Some of the sponsors _ Drury Inns, for example _ are decidedly pro-life. Armstrong also has committed to the Tour of Ireland and a cancer conference that wraps up just a few days before the start of the Tour of Missouri.  It will be fun to watch the events unfold.