I'm vacationing in Amelia Island in June. I've looked at mapmyride, but don't see any well defined routes. I haven't found any bike shops that post group rides either. Is there any place that's good to ride in that area?

Amelia has a lot of good places to ride.Go to this link and scroll to the bottom and click on the maps titles "TDF".Those are all the maps from an annual local ride called the Tour De Fort.

http://www.nfbc.us/Rides/Maps/tabid/109/Default.aspx

We go to Amelia a lot. There are a couple of routes I take. The first one just goes around the island, into Fort Clinch park and back. Using the Ritz as a starting place, turn right on Amelia Island Parkway, then turn right on A1A (riding north along the beach) to Atlantic Rd, turn left then enter Fort Clinch on the right (pay to ride). Ride through there a bit, which is nice because it's tree lined and you get some shade, then ride out. Coming out of the park, make a right on Atlantic, take it up to 14th street, go left and back down to Amelia Island parkway. Then left back to the Ritz area. It's basically a loop around the island. There's a good bit of traffic on 14th and Amelia Island parkway, but there's a shoulder for most of it.

The other way to go is a bit hairy for part of the way so watch out for the traffic. Again, using the Ritz as your starting place, go left on Amelia Island parkway until it dead ends into A1A (first coast highway). Make a left going towards Amelia Island Plantation (south). This is the scary part of the ride because there's no shoulder and a lot of traffic for the first part of the ride. Keep going south, cross over the bridge off the island. On the other side of the bridge there's a good shoulder and miles of road on the way to Jacksonville. There are a variety of places to turn off A1A and ride around to extend the ride. It's partially tree lined, but mostly not. It gets hot and there's nowhere to buy more water until you ride for a good while so stock up on fluids before you cross the bridge. There's a bait shop just before the bridge where you can buy something to drink.. Ride as far as you want, then turn around and come back. Great time trialing roads. Save some energy for the ride back because you'll probably be fighting a headwind on the way home.

I wouldn't recommend using high profile rims of any kind down there. The wind gets pretty strong and it can blow you around the road, particularly when going over the bridges.

Thanks guys. R.Rice, are there group rides on or near the island. I didn't see anything on the nfbc site, but I may have missed it.