The longest leg of the Tour of Missouri, the country’s third-largest professional bike race, finished off in Columbia on Friday. And whew, was it anticlimactic.

Tents filled with vendors hawking overpriced bike paraphernalia and curious media pros shuffling around with cameras and notepads made it seem as if Columbia were sort of a hopping, popular place.

Spectators lined the fences along Walnut and leaned into the street to catch a glimpse of the yellow jersey-wearer. They leaned. And leaned. And leaned. For about 45 minutes, because heavy winds pushed the stage’s expected finish time back to around 4 p.m. instead of 3 p.m.

Finally, fans cheered and yelled and banged cheap gold thunder sticks that left residue on their hands--for a couple of motorcycles that arrived at least 10 minutes before the athletes. But at last 107 tightly packed cyclists whizzed down Walnut, crossing the 8th-and-Walnut finish line in the first 30-second wave of athletes.

And it was over.