Isle of Man bans cycling on the Mountain Road again after arrests

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Road	A18 Snaefell Mountain Road, between Ramsey and Douglas
Banned section	Ramsey Hairpin → Creg-ny-Baa
Start	Friday 14 August 2026, 9:30
End	Monday 31 August 2026, 16:30
Reason	Manx Grand Prix and Classic TT
Length of the road	13 miles, or about 21 km
Traffic	Two-way traffic maintained throughout the period

“How will your visit end? The choice is yours.” Isle of Man police chose that caption to announce on social media the return of the ban on cycling along the Mountain Road. The post also carried a piece of information nobody had published until then: cyclists were arrested this summer.

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Arrests during the Tourist Trophy

“Several people were arrested during the TT period for cycling on the A18 Mountain Road,” the Manx police wrote in their statement. They give neither the exact number of arrests nor any possible legal follow-up.

The same text points out that the ban also applies to the Manx Grand Prix and the Classic TT, and that the signage is in place: “Clear signs are installed along the whole Mountain Road to indicate that cycling is not permitted on this section of the course.” The police close with a word of warning: “Please follow the signs and instructions, they are there to protect you and others.”

The ban itself is nothing improvised. It is set out in black and white in the official road closure notice published for the 2026 edition, which places it between Ramsey Hairpin and Creg-ny-Baa, from 14 to 31 August. The same document states that the Mountain Road stays open to two-way traffic during that period — unlike the TT in June, where traffic only runs in the direction of the course.

Twenty-one kilometres of moorland with no speed limit

The A18 links Ramsey to Douglas over thirteen miles, or about twenty-one kilometres, and climbs to 400 metres above sea level. It strings together fast bends across treeless moorland, where the weather turns quickly and visibility can drop within minutes. Over most of the route, no speed limit applies.

It is that combination — unrestricted speed, blind bends, frequent fog — that both camps use as their argument. The authorities see in it the reason to keep bikes away during the races. Cyclists see a public road they use the rest of the year without anyone finding fault with it.

A petition with 339 signatures that came to nothing

The August closure is temporary, but it revives a wider debate on the Island. A Douglas resident, Lee Smith, had launched a petition titled “Ban cyclists on the Isle of Man Mountain Road”, which called for their permanent exclusion. The text claims that bikes cause “a traffic jam” and “increase the risk of collisions”, and suggests sending them onto other routes.

The petition had gathered only 25 signatures in two weeks. It was the local radio station 3 FM that got it moving by picking it up, taking it to 339 backers — a total that was not enough. The Department of Infrastructure replied without ambiguity: “We have no plans to restrict cyclist access to any road on the Island, other than during the TT period.”

The subject had already caused a stir in 2023, when a Yorkshire cyclist, Chris Glencorse, was stopped three times by police on the same climb, in fog, after reports from motorists. The officers asked him to load his bike into their van. He refused: “That is not how the Highway Code works.” The police then explained that they had simply “offered to transport the cyclist and his bike to Douglas”.

For cycle tourists planning a trip to the Isle of Man at the end of summer, the consequence is concrete: until 16:30 on 31 August, the mountain has to be ridden around.

Lead photo: the Snaefell tram crosses the A18 Mountain Road at the Bungalow. Colin Park / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).