It’s no more than a few inches wide, but that fresh strip of white paint on the street just south of Civic Center Park could have a broad significance to St. Joseph in September.

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder was in St. Joseph on Tuesday afternoon to help unveil the starting line and the official “host city” sign that will adorn St. Joseph, which is the starting location for this year’s Tour of Missouri, a world-class bicycle race.

Kinder said that based on surveys conducted following last year’s inaugural event by the University of Missouri School of Business, more than 367,500 spectators attended the six-day event, and for the $1.7 million in state tax money — most of which was going to be used in promoting tourism anyway — Missouri received a payoff of $26.2 million.

“With that kind of success in the first year, I am confident we can get close to a half million spectators in seven days in the race this year,” Kinder said.

International cycling authorities noticed the success and granted an additional race day this season that has allowed to include four more cities, including St. Joseph.

As the starting city, St. Joseph plans a full weekend of pre-race activities to help draw in those tourism dollars before they leave as swiftly as the world-class cyclists. The Tour of Missouri will dovetail with the Coleman Hawkins Jazz Society’s St. Joe Blues Festival just a few blocks to the west. In addition, activities at Civic Center Park will include a wellness fair, demonstrations by stunt riders and USA Cycling-sanctioned races.

Dick Sipe, head of the local organizing committee, said he is excited about the exposure St. Joseph will get as the Tour of Missouri starting point.

“All the attention is going to be focused right here,” Sipe said. “The start of the race will be covered — World Wide Web, everything — and there will be media here from all over the state covering the beginning. That’s exciting.”

Sipe also is enthused about the USA Cycling-sanctioned races that will be held in and around St. Joseph for the two days prior to the Tour of Missouri. Those races already have drawn entrants from across the state.

“We’d love to see 200 to 300 entries in this thing, and we’d love to have it become the annual Tour of St. Joseph, and have that going in conjunction with the tour of Missouri,” Sipe said. “If we pull this off correctly, we’ll be doing it again next year.”

American George Hincapie, a Tour de France stage winner and a member of No. 1-ranked Team High Road, already has announced he will return to defend his Tour of Missouri title.

A total of 15 teams with eight cyclists each will participate. The Sept. 8 to 14 event finishes the first stage in Kansas City, following a route that Sipe said still is being finalized. The race ends seven days later in St. Louis.

Sports reporter Rick Dunaway can be reached at rickd@npgco.com