The island plays host to round two of the 2024 British Cycling National Youth and Junior Road Race Series this weekend. 

The event has consistently been held in the Isle of Man since 2007 and has once again been selected as a venue for the competition between the top young male and female riders from around the country. 

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, through its travel arm Steam Packet Holidays, is the headline sponsor and travel partner for the event, which will see two days of racing with six age-band categories, running from under-eight youths to under-18 juniors. 

The tour gets underway at 9.30am on Saturday with the Mac Group road race over the Ellerslie course in Marown, followed by the Ocean Motor Village stage two in the Jurby area on Sunday from 9am. 

The action will be followed by a prize presentation at the Villa Marina on Sunday evening. 

A total of 265 of the best young cyclists from around Britain will take part, accompanied by families, team personnel, race officials and journalists. 

Manx cycling talent will be well represented in all the categories, with teams from each age group in the local RL360 series and the Utmost-Mezzo IoM Junior squad. 

The overall leading rider in each category will wear the coveted Steam Packet Holidays leader’s jersey, with the points leader in each age group donning the Mezzo green jersey. 

Richard Fletcher, of the organising team, welcomed the introduction of a new group of sponsors and said: ‘Aside from attracting in excess of 800 visitors, the continued hosting of the national road race series is great publicity for the Isle of Man and is critical to maintaining the high standards being achieved by our local riders. 

‘We could not make this happen without sponsorship and as organisers, we’d like to put on record our sincere gratitude to Steam Packet Holidays, Mezzo Management, Mac Group, Ocean Motor Village, Dot Performance, Pro Vision Clothing and the Isle of Man Visit Agency. 

For more information go to www.cycling.im