Road Closures Announced for Women’s Tour Henley Stage
Road closure details have been announced for the Oxfordshire stage of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour professional cycling race on Wednesday 12 June starting in Henley. This will affect Market Place, Hart Street, Thameside, New Street, Bell Street, Northfield End and Fairmile.
Starting in Henley at 10:30am, the race will traverse the Chilterns via Pishill to Watlington, before returning via the climb of Britwell Hill to Sonning Common and Goring.
Greys Road car park will be closed from midnight on 11 June to noon on 12 June as it is being used for the cycling village. An extra car park will be available on Fairmile Field, just off the Fairmile on the right-hand side, as you leave Henley going north/west on the A4130. You can find a map showing this at www.southoxon.gov.uk/bikeraceparking
Crossing the River Thames at Wallingford, the route will pass through Didcot, Harwell and Wantage, crossing the Vale of White Horse to Faringdon, before looping through the West Oxfordshire towns of Burford, Charlbury and finally Woodstock; the finishing line will be in the grounds of Blenheim Palace. The leading cyclists are expected to cross the finishing line just after 2:15pm.
There will be nearly 100 pro-cyclists, accompanied by support vehicles. Many spectators are expected to line the route.
Road restrictions will be in place at the start point in Henley town centre involving closures, prohibitions of waiting, disabled person parking and loading, and imposing one-way traffic. Local diversions and information signs will be used to indicate the route.
Henley’s West Street (east of Kings Road junction) and Market Place will be closed to traffic between 4am and 1pm on Wednesday 12 June. One-way traffic will operate along Henley’s Kings Road, northwards only, from West Street to Waitrose Car Park.
There will be ‘rolling road closure’ system from approximately 10am at the race start area in Henley, controlled by police and route marshals.
‘Rolling road closures’ will then continue along the route. They will involve highways and junctions with access roads onto the route, closing for short periods while the race passes through. The length of closure depends on how dispersed the riders are.
Typically, the lead motorcycle instigating the closure is 15 minutes ahead of the lead rider. The closure then remains in place until all riders and race cars have passed through. The event organisers advice is to look at the route of the race and avoid that road for about one hour either side of the predicted time of the race passing through.
