The island’s first senior three-day cycle stage race gets underway tomorrow evening, Friday, with a kermesse round IoM Business Park, Braddan.

Fresh from winning British Cycling’s National Circuit Series with four wins out of a possible five, Glen Vine’s Matt Bostock has to be among the favourites for the 50-lapper.

By chance, the 22-year-old is No.1 on the start sheet for all four stages of the Cycle 360 Manx International.

The British Cycling numbering protocol is that in the absence of a previous year’s winner, the honour goes to the team that is leading the National Series - with riders in alphabetical order - hence Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes and Bostock.

Having won the National Circuit Series, he is also the hot favourite to take the first Orange-coloured Cycle 360 leaders’ jersey after the opening stage.

The kermesse, presented by Manx Telecom, will start at 7.30pm and feature 50 laps of a super-quick 1.1 kilometre course taking in the relatively new, smooth roads of the Business Park and the revamped Cooil Road.

The action will continue on Saturday morning with a tough 6.1km hill climb on the notorious Sloc, presented by Brother.

This will start at 10am with riders setting off individually in one-minute intervals.

Stage three will hark back to the old days of the Curwen Road Race round the Billown Course, last held in 2003.

Saturday afternoon’s 15-lapper (approximately 60 miles) will begin at 4pm and will run in the opposite direction to the motorbikes in the Southern 100 and associated meetings.

There is a clash the same afternoon with the Castletown Festival, so expect some congestion (and confusion!).

The final stage of the three-day British Cycling affiliated event is a little more straightforward with a three-lap road race round the Snaefell Mountain Course on Sunday afternoon.

This begins at 1pm, with road closures in place round the entire course from 12.30 until no later than 6.30pm. The mountain section will be closed from 8.15am to accommodate the Canaccord Sportive (see page 56).

The closures on the lower parts of the course will be in segments and numerous crossing points will be open for extensive periods of time, along with corridors in areas such as Quarter Bridge/Braddan straight, Kirk Michael, Ramsey, Signpost Corner to Governor’s Hill and Governor’s Bridge to Victoria Road areas. Disruption will be kept to a minimum.

There are nine Manx riders taking part in total. In addition to Matt Bostosk there is Mark Christian (Wiggins Le Col), Nathan Draper (Zappi), Tom and Leon Mazzone (Spirit Tifosi), plus a four-man Isle of Man team comprised of Conor Davies (home from Belgium), Jamie Fletcher (home from Chester) and Island Games riders Thomas Bostock and Matt Looker.

Local favourite for the overall win has to be Christian, whose strength will no doubt show in the hill climb and TT Course road race.

2016 Manx International winner Ian Bibby loves the TT Course and has commented several times in the national cycling press that the Isle of Man round of the HSBC UK British Cycling National Road Series is one of his 2019 targets.

The event has received generous support from a number of locally-based and international companies, with headline sponsors Cycle 360 being supplemented by Manx Telecom, The Stars Group, Jacksons Group, Brother UK, Callin Wild, Pro Vision Clothing, Robinson’s, Tesco, Bushy’s Brewery, Fleetsmart, Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and Isle of Man Cycle Tours.