St. Louis... You're a short drive away; we've got a season with races every weekend, including a NRC race, road races and a ton of crits; and there is a good level of competition here.

Early season road races that would be worth your while include:
-Hillsboro Roubaix: http://web.me.com/iccc_stl/Hillsboro/Welcome.html
-Tour of Hermann (Omnium... awesome event): http://www.tourofhermann.com/
-Tour de. St. Genevieve (MO State RR Championship): http://tdstg.com/home
and
-Tour de Grove: This is the NRC race, but it's new this year and website isn't up yet. Listed as a circuit race, as it was a 3 mile loop last year.

Good Crits include:
-Gateway Cup (late in the season, but absolutely as good as they get... TOP NOTCH event. 4 races, 4 venues, over 4 days): http://www.gatewaycup.com/
-Tour of St. Louis (3 races, 3 venues, over 2 days): http://bigshark.com/page.cfm?pageID=611
-Amongst others. These are the most notable.