Geared up for a day of top competition

Action from last year's event on the streets of Motherwell

The cyclists will race around a 1.2km circuit from the start/finish line on Hamilton Road around High Road, Farm Street, Ladywell Road and Douglas Street, which will be closed from 7am-midnight.

The action gets underway at 1.35pm as Scottish Racing hold a series of amateur races with the Matrix race for the elite women at 5.30pm and the Pearl race for the elite men at 7.30pm.

Looking ahead to the women’s race Podium Ambition Pro Cycling p/b Club La Santa team manager Barney Storey said: “We are really pleased to be defending our title in the Matrix Fitness GP Series this year.

“Having won the team title for the last two seasons, we are even more delighted this will become the focal point of the women’s series.

“As in previous years the team classification will be our aim and with strong competition from other teams, this will be one of the toughest series so far.

“We are looking forward to being as consistent as possible throughout the series, to defend our team title.”

Two-time Pearl champions JLT Condor presented by Mavic got their 2016 campaign off to a perfect start in the Isle of Man with a pair of team wins in Ramsey in both the team time trial and criterium .

The brace of wins mark the 20th and 21st victories for the team, who have competed in every edition of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series to date, and won the title in 2011 and 2014.

The night was rounded off with further success for the men in black as Chris Lawless took the individual race win in the criterium, and former World Track Champion Alex Frame the Brother Fastest Lap award on his debut in the Series.