GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The four-day USA Cycling Road Amateur Nationals in June will feature plenty of bicycling, but the county is working to ensure that everything else around the races work together in tandem.

When the championship starts on June 25, the next three days will require an all-hands-on-deck approach to guarantee that the championships and other USA Cycling Road events come to Clay County. Tourism Director Kimberly Morgan and Chief Revenue Officer for Airstream Ventures Joel Lamp held a meeting March 5 with local authorities and town officials to stress the importance of communal collaboration.

“Every business has to give a red-carpeted customer experience to the Nth degree,” Morgan said. “We need to create that experience for them because we want them to come back to Clay County. We need to wow them with our southern hospitality and our small-town big passions feel.”

The nationals will start with a 20-mile time trial in Keystone Heights. A 10-mile race will follow on June 26 at Penney Farms and a 40-mile race is scheduled for June 27. The last day will hold a NASCAR-on-two-wheels race on Fleming Island.

The day of the NASCAR-like race is the day Morgan anticipates the most fan involvement. The other races don’t make for a full-viewing experience due to their length. A viewer can watch the race start but soon after, the cyclists will be out of their view. That changes on Sunday, June 28, though because the Criterium, which is the NASCAR-like race, will include 100 cyclists racing in a loop for 70 minutes.

“We’ll have food trucks, BBQ, a VIP tent, maybe beer and more,” Lamp said. “This is where we’re going to do a lot of things to get the community involved and out to make it a fun day in Fleming Island.”

That’s great for the viewers but what about the cyclists? Lamp said because the age range of the cyclists is 10-to-seniors, it’s important the county not only make them feel welcome, but give them things to do when they’re not on their bikes.

Morgan said local restaurants should prepare for massive calorie-loaded meals for the bikers and work on creating signage that welcomes the cyclists and the championship to town.

“We want these people to drive through Clay County and really feel welcome,” Morgan said. “We want them to feel like everyone here is excited about them and the event.”

Morgan said it’s important for the event managers to see Clay County’s commitment to the event because one of the reasons the county nailed down the nationals is the effort from the community.

Morgan said the county has already demonstrated that excellence by jumping through many hoops to make this happen in such a short period of time.

“We’ve done eight weeks of work in three weeks and now we have four months to do a year of work,” Lamp said. “We’re going to make it happen. To get a national championship right out of the box is a great opportunity.”

Lamp said there will be 800 riders and the county should expect each participant to have family with them. Lamp said just in competitors and immediate family, the county is looking at more than 1,000 visitors. Morgan said this is a great opportunity for the county to create new fans.

As the event nears, Morgan, Lamp and the Airstream Ventures team will be making site checks throughout the county. They’ll also be looking for potholes, botched curbs and other street abnormalities along race sites that need to be fixed before the championship.

Lamp and Morgan ultimately want to work to make Clay County as cyclist-friendly as possible so it becomes a destination for cyclists.

“For us to bring it here is a special opportunity,” Lamp said. “As we continue to bring events, we know Clay County has some niches that nobody in northeast Florida has. We can take this momentum and build something even bigger.

“They run 17 national championships and if we all work together to do this right I think we’re going to see them come back time and time again.”