Manx Trophy

Manx Trophy
Race details
Date June
Region Isle of Man
English name Manx Trophy
Discipline Road race
Competition Premier Calendar
Type Single day race
History
First edition 1936 (1936)
Editions c. 54
First winner United Kingdom Charles Holland
Most wins FranceJean Baldessari
United Kingdom Tom Simpson
Republic of Ireland Seamus Elliot
United Kingdom Paul Curran
(2 times)
Most recent United Kingdom Ian Bibby

The Manx Trophy or Isle of Man International Road Race is a bicycle road race 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 to ride the Tour de France.

The first event involved riders racing a single lap of the famous TT circuit of 37.75 miles. The course runs from Douglas to Ramsey then climbs for five miles to a high point on the mountain of Snaefell at 1,384 feet before descending to Douglas. The distance was later increased to two and then three laps (113 miles).

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, as the Island prepares a second bid to host the National Road Race Championships for 2018.

Winners (not a complete list)

as Manx International Cycling GP (www.manxinternational.com)

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