Exact route of Warwickshire elite cycling event revealed

The elite cyclists will be riding through the county on Thursday June 16, and the 87 mile route will take them through the centres of Kenilworth and Warwick, passing both of the town’s castles.

Business support and events officer for Warwick District Council Paul Garrison confirmed the usual Thursday Kenilworth market will have extra stalls with a cycling theme, and confirmed Warwick will see a bespoke market on the day from 10am to 2pm.

He added: “We’ll be encouraging people to get into Kenilworth and Warwick on the day as early as possible.”

The cyclists are expected to arrive in Kenilworth between 10.59 and 11.09am.

They will enter the town through Coventry Road and will continue along New Street, Fieldgate Lane, Beehive Hill, past Kenilworth Castle on Castle Road, over the ford, then onto Warwick Road where a frenetic sprint section will take place.

The best sprinters on the tour will all aim to finish first along Warwick Road, so wheel-to-wheel action is very likely.

After the sprint section, the cyclists will then head south into Leek Wootton and Guys Cliffe before arriving in Warwick between 11.14 and 11.27am.

They will cycle down Birmingham Road and Northgate Street before heading past St Mary’s Church. They will continue along Old Square, Market Place, Market Street, and Bowling Green Street before heading northeast along the High Street and Jury Street.

They will then head over the Avon next to St Nicholas Park and Warwick Castle before leaving the town via Gallows Hill and Harbury Lane.

Race controller Guy Elliott said: “The Warwickshire stage will be a deceptively tough leg with a great deal of climbing.

“The course we have created with such a hilly parcours will make for excellent racing, while at the same time showcasing many beautiful and historic locations.”

The Aviva Women’s Tour will see 96 riders in 16 teams compete over five days of racing.

The Warwickshire stage is the second of the race, and the riders taking part will have already completed a stage in East Anglia a day before.

The stage will start in Atherstone in the north of Warwickshire at 10am and eventually finishes in Stratford between 1.34 and 2.10pm depending on the pace of the peloton and if any breakaway riders decide to try and move ahead on their own.

It will incorporate two sprint sections, including the section in Kenilworth, where the fastest riders compete for points, and two ‘Queen of the Mountains’ sections, which test the riders’ ability to climb hills the fastest. Riders will have ascended 1,772m by the time they finish.

After finishing the Warwickshire stage, further stages will take place in the Peak District, Nottingham and Stoke before the final stage in Northamptonshire on Sunday June 19.

Further details on events taking place in Kenilworth and Warwick are expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Full details of the route can be found at www.womenstour.co.uk/stages/stage2