Leave it to the show-me state to be so far behind international trends that it latches onto the cycling craze just as one of the country’s top pro-teams disbands.

The Discovery Channel Team, partially led by Lance Armstrong, was set to compete in the state’s first-ever Tour of Missouri, September 11-16. The team announced last week that it would not pursue a sponsor and would instead disband, because of – what else – the doping scandals surrounding the sport.

Good timing, Missouri.

Nonetheless, this event actually seems pretty cool. Modeled after the Tour de France, the six-day, 600-mile race works its way east from Kansas City, with stops at some of the state’s classiest metropolises, including Branson on Sept. 13 and Columbia on Sept. 14.