Newbold Terrace and Euston Place close at 4am on Sunday 23 August, the Parade twice. Full closure times, race ETAs through Kenilworth and where to watch.

Newbold Terrace and Euston Place will be closed to traffic from 4am on Sunday 23 August, and will not reopen until 6.30pm. Royal Leamington Spa is hosting the start and the finish of the final stage of the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women, and the overall champion will be crowned on Newbold Terrace that afternoon.

Warwickshire County Council amended the parking restrictions on 19 August, after this newspaper’s last look at the plans. Several streets that were due to clear at 6pm on the Saturday now clear at midnight instead, which the council says is meant “to better support the evening economy”.

The trade-off is a hard deadline the following morning. Any vehicle still standing in a restricted area after 4am on Sunday “may be towed to a nearby location for safety reasons”, though the council states there will be no charge to the owner. It puts that down to UCI safety rules, noting that riders on the sprint finish can be travelling at more than 60km/h.

The closures in Leamington on Sunday

These are the fixed closures published by the county council, which last updated the page on 19 August:

  • Newbold Terrace, in its entirety, 4am to 6.30pm
  • Euston Place, in its entirety, 4am to 6.30pm
  • Newbold Street, between Rosefield Street and Newbold Terrace, 4am to 6.30pm
  • Holly Walk, from Hamilton Terrace to Brandon Parade, 7am to 5pm
  • Hamilton Terrace, in its entirety, 7am to 5pm
  • the Parade, from Dormer Place to Spencer Street, 9am to 11.30am and again from 1.30pm to 3.30pm

One caution on that last line. The statutory closure order Warwickshire County Council advertised on 14 August gives the Parade’s afternoon window as 3pm to 3.30pm, and the council’s own “plan your visit” page gives it as 1pm to 3.30pm. The road closures page is the most recently updated of the three. If you need to cross the Parade on Sunday afternoon, assume the longest version and allow for it.

Where you cannot park, and from when

The no stopping, waiting and loading restrictions bite before the closures do.

  • Euston Place: from 6pm on Saturday 22 August to 7pm on Sunday
  • Newbold Terrace, Newbold Street, Holly Walk, the Parade and Hamilton Terrace: from 11.59pm on Saturday 22 August to 7pm on Sunday
  • Leam Terrace and Willes Road, on the run-in to the finish: from 00.01 on Sunday
  • Smalley Place, Kenilworth, in the parking bays outside the Town Hall: from 00.01 on Sunday

If you park on any of those streets, move the car on Saturday evening rather than early on Sunday.

When the race passes your village

The county council has published the official stage timings as a route-by-route breakdown. The stage is 123.8km, or 77 miles, with a further 3.5km neutralised section out of town before racing begins on the B4113 Stoneleigh Road.

Lead vehicles leave Newbold Terrace at 10.45am and the riders roll out at 11am. Everything after that depends on how fast the race is run, so the council publishes three columns for average speeds of 32, 38 and 42km/h. The times below are the middle estimate, at 38km/h.

Estimated times the Tour of Britain Women passes each point on Sunday 23 August A timeline of the 77-mile final stage. The riders leave Newbold Terrace in Leamington at 11am, reach Kenilworth at 11.27am, Stoneleigh at 11.39am, Princethorpe at 11.54am, Wellesbourne at 12.32pm, Shipston-on-Stour at 12.59pm, the Sun Rising Hill climb at 1.25pm, the Burton Dassett Hills climb at 1.39pm, Southam at 2.06pm and the finish back on Newbold Terrace at about 2.30pm. Times assume an average speed of 38 kilometres per hour. When the riders reach you, Sunday 23 August Estimated arrival at an average 38km/h. A faster race arrives up to 20 minutes earlier. 11.00 Leamington start 11.27 Kenilworth 11.39 Stoneleigh 11.54 Princethorpe 12.32 Wellesbourne 12.59 Shipston 13.25 Sun Rising climb 13.39 Burton Dassett climb 14.06 Southam 14.30 Leamington finish Roads on the route close about 15 minutes before the riders arrive and reopen once the race has passed. The two marked climbs are the Queen of the Mountain points; the sprint is at Friz Hill, near Wellesbourne, at 12.38. Source: Warwickshire County Council, Lloyds Tour of Britain Women stage five route timings and locations. Graphic by The Leamington Post
Estimated arrival times along the final stage, from the county council's published schedule.

Away from the start and finish area the closures are rolling. Roads shut roughly 15 minutes before the riders arrive and reopen once the race and its convoy have gone through. A vehicle runs 15 minutes ahead of the race telling spectators what to expect.

The route leaves Leamington northwards through Blackdown and Leek Wootton, turns through Kenilworth on Warwick Road, Smalley Place, Castle Hill and New Street, then runs out through Stoneleigh and Princethorpe to pick up the Fosse Way south. It crosses the M40, passes Wellesbourne and Shipston-on-Stour, climbs Sun Rising Hill and Burton Dassett, then returns north through Southam and Radford Semele to finish via Radford Road, Leam Terrace and Willes Road.

Expect the finish between about 2.10pm and 2.50pm, depending on the pace.

Burton Dassett is one-way for two hours

If your Sunday plan was the country park rather than the bike race, note that Burton Dassett Hills runs a one-way system between 1pm and 3pm while the riders complete the second Queen of the Mountain climb.

Vehicles must enter from the roundabout by the Ministry of Defence base at Kineton, at the bottom of the hill off the B4100, and leave at the far end towards Fenny Compton and Avon Dassett. Signs will show where to rejoin the B4100.

What is on in town

The Pump Room Gardens is the main event village, with a big screen showing the race and the winner’s podium alongside it. Warwick District Council lists the event as running from 9am to 4pm at the Royal Pump Rooms, the Parade, CV32 4AA, and free to attend.

The county council says the village will carry a cycle track, a climbing wall, pedal-powered games, BMX stunt displays, arts and crafts, food and drink, community stalls and local cycling clubs.

What it means for you

The practical advice is to arrive without a car if you can. Leamington Spa station is about ten minutes’ walk from the Pump Room Gardens, and the council is asking visitors to use public transport, walk or cycle.

If you do drive, one detail in the council’s own advice needs care. Its travel page points drivers to the Covent Garden surface and multi-storey car parks, but Warwick District Council’s own closure page still records the multi-storey as shut, as it has been since 2023, with the surface car park reduced while the building is taken down. St Peter’s multi-storey and Bedford Street are the safer bets. Car parks stay open through the closures, but getting into them may not be straightforward; charges are on our roadworks and travel page.

Three further points worth knowing:

  • the race is free to watch anywhere on the route, and there is no ticket for the Pump Room Gardens either
  • police officers and escort motorcyclists travel with the race, and the county council asks spectators to face the oncoming riders, stand back from the kerb and keep flags, camera equipment and dogs out of the road
  • businesses on or near the route may find staff and customer access affected during the rolling closures, and the council has published the timings so they can plan around them

Why the race is here

This is stage five of five, run from 19 to 23 August. It is the first women’s Tour of Britain to carry five stages, matching the men’s race, and it started in Cockermouth in Cumbria.

Warwickshire County Council says 19 teams are competing, including 13 UCI Women’s WorldTour teams and nine of the world’s top ten ranked squads. Defending team champions FDJ United-Suez, two-time overall winners Lidl-Trek and Team SD Worx-Protime are all in the field, alongside the Great Britain Cycling Team and four British-registered UCI Continental teams.

Councillor Rob Howard, the county council’s portfolio holder for economy and rural development, called it “a fantastic opportunity for residents and visitors to enjoy a family-friendly day out and experience world-class sport”.

The council is also selling the day to local businesses, encouraging shops and pubs on the route to extend their hours or set up cheer stations. One word of warning on its figures. Its business page puts annual tourism spending in Warwickshire at “£1,263 billion”, which cannot be right for a county of this size and reads as a punctuation error. The jobs figure alongside it, more than 22,500 supported by tourism, is the one worth quoting.

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