On Air Good Friday Breakfast Chris Williams | 6:00am - 10:00am

Three Manxies at Worlds

Three Isle of Man born and bred riders will compete for Great Britain at the World Track Cycling Championships which start today in Poland.

Jonny Bellis, Peter Kennaugh and Mark Cavendish, straight after his astonishing win at the Milan to San Remo classic race on Saturday, represent half the men's endurance riders selected.

Tomorrow Mark Cavendish may be picked for the Scratch Race - the event he won gold in for the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006.

Jonny Bellis and Peter Kenaugh could be in Friday's Team Pursuit competition.

On Saturday, there is a real possibility of an all Manx team in the Madison race with Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh favourites to represent Team G.B..

In recent years, most attention on Mark Cavendish has been down to his outstanding achievements with the Columbia Highroad Team on the road. In a shade over two years, he has 34 professional wins to his name.

But he also has an impressive record on the track where he has won the Madison World title twice before - with Rob Hayles at Los Angeles in 2005 and with Bradley Wiggins last year in Manchester.

Jonny Bellis is in his first year as a professional rider with the Saxo Bank team. He has won three gold medals at European Championship level in his career. But a World title has so far eluded him. In 2006, he won silver in the Points race and bronze in the Team Pursuit at the Junior World Track Championships.

His most famous achievement came in 2007 when he won bronze at the Under-23 World Road Race Championships in Germany - Britain's first road medal for 40 years.

Peter Kennaugh struck gold at World level before. In 2006 he won the Scratch race at the World Junior Track Championship where he also returned home with a bronze from the Team Pursuit. He has also won three Team Pursuit golds in European Championships - two as a Junior and the other as an under-23 rider.

Recently, he won gold in the same discipline at the World Cup meeting in Copenhagen, silver in the Madison with Rob Hayles in Beijing and silver in the Points Race in Colombia - he has only competed at three World Cup events.


More from Isle of Man Sport