The Manx Trophy or Isle of Man International Road Race is a
bicycle road race
Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...
run annually on the
Isle of Man. In the 1960s the race attracted the world's top professional cyclists including
Fausto Coppi,
Jacques Anquetil and
Eddy Merckx.
The race was a feature of the
Isle of Man cycling festival, an annual event which ran from 1936 to 2003 and was started by journalist and cycling enthusiast
Curwen Clague.
The first festival included a massed-start road race (a rarity in mainland Britain at the time but allowed in the Isle of Man, a self-governing
crown dependency) which featured the top riders of the day. Despite closed roads the race saw many crashes and only a few riders finished. The first winner was
Charles Holland of
Birmingham, later one of the first two
Englishmen
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in O ...
to ride the
Tour de France.
The first event involved riders racing a single lap of the
famous TT circuit of . The course runs from
Douglas to
Ramsey then climbs for to a high point on the mountain of Snaefell at before descending to Douglas. The distance was later increased to two and then three laps ().
The Manx Trophy was reintroduced in April 2016 as a one-day race by Manx International Cycling Ltd, named the Manx International Cycling GP, forming part of the British Cycling
Spring Cup over 3 laps of the TT Mountain Circuit, and in 2017 hosted the
National Road Race Championships
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
where Steve Cummings won both the National Time Trial and Road Race events. In 2019 the event was relaunched as a 3 day stage race forming part of the HSBC UK, British Cycling National Mens Road Race Series.
Winners (not a complete list)
Manx Trophy/Isle of Man International Road Race
Manx International Cycling GP
References
Notes
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External links
Manx International on veloarchive.com
Cycle races in the Isle of Man
Recurring sporting events established in 1936
1936 establishments in the Isle of Man
Men's road bicycle races
Snaefell Mountain Course
Summer events in the Isle of Man