The Isle of Man will have several riders in action at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland over the next 11 days.

The event gets underway today (Thursday) and will be the inaugural edition of the championships in its current format.

Normally, the UCI Road World Championships take place on their own towards the end of the professional cycling season.

But, for the first time, the road champs will be incorporated into the same event alongside other major competitions such as the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

Indeed, the UCI Gran Fondo Championships are also included, with the recent Gran Fondo Isle of Man being a qualifying event for it.

In all, more than 2,500 athletes will take part across the 11 days of action, with no fewer than 190 world champions being crowned across the various disciplines. A further 8,000 cyclists will also ride in a mass participation event.

In the road championships, Onchan resident Ben Swift will compete for the road race rainbow jersey in the elite men’s squad alongside Owain Doull, Luke Rowe, Jake Stewart, Connor Swift, Ben Turner, Sam Watson and Fred Wright.

Likewise, Manxie Lizzie Holden will contest the elite women’s road race alongside team-mates Lizzie Deignan, Pfeiffer Georgi, Anna Henderson, Anna Shackley (under-23) and Claire Steels.

In addition, Holden - who was recently crowned British national time trial champion - will attempt to replicate that success in the elite women’s time trial.

Having also claimed a medal at the British champs with a silver in the junior men’s time trial, Max Walker is part of the under-23 men’s road race squad for the Worlds alongside Bob Donaldson, Lukas Nerurkar, Oliver Rees and Jack Rootkin-Gray.

There will also be several Isle of Man representatives in the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships which take place in Perth, Scotland tomorrow (Friday).

Rob Sorby and Simon Harding are competing in the 45-50 age group, while Dave Cain is in the 35-40 category.

On the women’s side of things, Lucy Mann will ride in the 19-34 category, while Emma Atkinson will feature in the 45-49 class.

The Gran Fondo events kick off the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships tomorrow (Friday) with the riders setting off in their age groups at separate times between 10am and 11.35am.

On Sunday, the men’s elite road race will begin at 9.30am, before the women’s elite individual time trial next Thursday (August 10) at 2pm.

The men’s under-23 road race takes place two days later on Saturday, August 12 before the women’s elite road race draws the championships to a close at 12pm the following day on Sunday, August 13.