Mark Christian and Mark Cavendish are among nine Manx-born or island resident cyclists competing in this week’s prestigious national road championships.

The medieval city of Norwich and Norfolk’s picturesque coastline hosts what promises to be a thrilling spectacle of two-wheeled activity at the HSBC UK National Road Cycling Championships.

Racing commences today, Thursday, with the under-23 men’s individual time trial over a 16.5-mile course culminating at the Royal Sandringham Estate. No Isle of Man riders involved in this event.

The elite women’s time trial at 12.20pm has a star-studded field including the likes of World Tour sisters Hannah and Alice Barnes (both Canyon-SRAM) as well as multiple European and world champion Katie Archibald (Team HUUB).

Manxman Mark Christian (Wiggins Le Col) starts the elite men’s time trial as one of the top-10 hopefuls after an impressively strong ride at the recent Tour of the Reservoir (see story on page 58).

He is one of the later starters to tackle the 25.9-mile course amongst world class names such as Alex Dowset (Katusha Alpecin) and John Archibald (Ribble Pro Cycling).

The day is concluded by the under-23 women’s event, and with it, possibly the Isle of man’s best opportunity for a medal with Lizzie Holden (Drops) having ridden to a bronze medal in the event last year, making her one of the firm favourites to go even better at this year’s event.

The elite and under-23 men’s road race events run consecutively over 125 miles on Sunday beginning at 9am.

A stellar field will take to the start line, including former champion Mark Cavendish who will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing Tour of Slovenia and build towards his 12th Tour de France where he no doubt will want to increase his enormous tally of 30 stage wins.

Mark Christian and Matthew Bostock (Canyon) also compete, with Christian keen to improve on last year’s career best finish of 11th, while Bostock will be looking to medal in the under-23 category.

Brothers Leon and Tom Mazzone of Ramsey (Spirit-Tifosi Racing), as well as resident profesional Ben Swift (Team Ineos) who will be looking to capitalise on his form after an impressive fifth place on the stage three of the Tour De Suisse.

Later in the afternoon it will be the turn of the Elite and under-23 women, where again Lizzie Holden will be looking to get a strong result in the latter category.

Competing alongside her will be team-mate and fellow Manxwoman Anna Christian, while the flat nature of the course is not to her liking, you can be certain that her attacking style will be present throughout, animating the event.

Making her debut in the Nationals is talented triathlete Becky Storrie, competing under the IoM Ladies team banner, looking to gain a solid finish in her most prestigious race to date.

The time trial events are televised on the British Cycling Facebook page and the Road races are shown via British Cycling’s Youtube channel.

Reports in next week’s Examiner and Manx independent.