{"id":362148,"date":"2025-12-21T08:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362148\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T08:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:09:10","slug":"dates-confirmed-for-reinvented-isle-of-man-gran-fondo-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362148\/","title":{"rendered":"Dates confirmed for reinvented Isle of Man Gran Fondo event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Catherine NicollIsle of Man<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766283371_678_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3408f770-dcf0-11f0-9edb-d794f4dbaf7f.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"GRAN FONDO ISLE OF MAN A group of cyclists in colourful clothing on a dirt track through a plantation with chopped up piece of felled trees on the right.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>GRAN FONDO ISLE OF MAN<\/p>\n<p>The new event will have a route that travels through the island&#8217;s plantations<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The first edition of a new mass-participant off-road cycling event through the Isle of Man will take place on 26 July, organisers have confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The reincarnated event, which was previously held on closed public roads, will see riders compete in two classes \u2013 the Gran Fondo Gravel race and the Gran Fondo cross-country mountain bike race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Ahead of the main events, two warm-up races \u2013 a non-competitive off-road version and a family-friendly ride on a closed-road circuit \u2013 have been arranged for 25 July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Organisers said the new off-road race had taken inspiration from the former End2End Mountain Bike Challenge, which had been run through the island&#8217;s plantations for 19 years until 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Although full details of the course have not yet been released, organisers said it would start in the north of the island before &#8220;sweeping south through rugged coastline, open moorland, and scenic trails&#8221;, with the finish on the southern coast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The flagship races would be run on a 62-mile (100km) route featuring 5249ft (1600m) of elevation gain, they added.<\/p>\n<p>Event schedule<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Saturday 25 July 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">11:00 BST \u2013 Minisculo Fondo<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">13:00 BST \u2013 Gran Fondo Challenge<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Sunday 26 July 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">09:30 BST \u2013 Gran Fondo Gravel<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">09:30 BST \u2013 Gran Fondo XC MTB<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766283371_678_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1dd97e20-dcf0-11f0-9edb-d794f4dbaf7f.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"GRAN FONDO ISLE OF MAN The group of cyclists from behind riding away along the dirt track.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>GRAN FONDO ISLE OF MAN<\/p>\n<p>The main events on the Gran Fondo Isle of Man take place on 26 July<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The event was run for the <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cn54wy013r2o\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">final time<\/a> in its previous road race guise earlier this year, attracting more than 1,000 competitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Originally run under the banner of CycleFest in 2016 the event evolved into the Gran Fondo Isle of Man brand, attracting competitors from places including Australia and South Africa, as well all-time Tour de France stage win record holder <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-isle-of-man-62164443\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Cavendish<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Encouraging competitors to sign up for new event, organisers said it promised to be &#8220;an unforgettable riding experience in a truly unique setting&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine NicollIsle of Man GRAN FONDO ISLE OF MAN The new event will have a route that travels&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-362148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}