Lizzie Holden was the Isle of Man’s highest placed rider in the cycling road races at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.

The Trek Drops rider and Manx team-mate Anna Christian were the island’s sole representatives in the women’s road race on Saturday morning.

Anna worked very hard in the first 50km of the 112km race, receiving a lot of plaudits from former team manager Rochelle Gilmore as she covered virtually everything that happened, although Jersey’s Kim Ashton was off the front for much of the first 40km

Lizzie was always well placed in the lead group of 30 and the Isle of Man duo were both still well featured in the closing stages.

Christian’s earlier efforts caught up with her and she eventually dropped back a bit, but Holden finished strongly and crossed the line in 18th place, only 1m 14s behind the winner.

The men’s race took place later in the day when temperatures reached around 30 degrees, therefore it proved to be a grueling affair.

Track specialist Matty Bostock - who was sixth in the 15km scratch a week earlier - made some early breaks despite a persistent knee problem but did not finish.

There were bad luck for Sam Brand who was involved in a touch of wheels and went down, although he was loaned a bike by a spectator and completed a couple more laps.

Nathan Draper also worked hard early on for his team-mates, while Jake and Tom Mazzone were the team leaders and performed admirably.

Kelly’s earlier efforts caught up with him when he cramped up on the final time up the biggest of the hills after hitting it towards the front of the bunch

Leon Mazzone also cramped up on the final lap and dropped back to Jake’s group

Eventually it was Kelly who led the Manxies home, crossing the line in 32nd ahead of Leon Mazzone in 34th and Tom Mazzone 50th.