The delays are expected around Thornton-le-Dale due to road closures for stage one of the Women’s Tour of Britain bike race on Roads between Dalby Forest through Pickering towards Kirkbymoorside and through the North Yorkshire Moors toward Great Ayton before arriving at Redcar.
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There will be rolling road closures in place along the route as the cyclists pass through each area.
In total 19 teams and 114 riders will take part in the four-day race that begins on Thursday with a stage between Dalby Forest and Redcar across the North York Moors National Park, before the second stage on Friday from Hartlepool ends with an uphill finish at Saltburn-by-the-Sea.
And emotions will be running high for world commonwealth and national cycling champion Lizzie Deignan at the tour.
After announcing in November that this would be her final season as a professional, Deignan has been saying her goodbyes at races all year.
Lizzie Deignan is taking part Deignan was on the start line for the first Women’s Tour in 2014, won it in both 2016 and 2019, and will be racing it for an eighth time when the opening stage rolls out of Dalby Forest on Thursday.
The 36-year-old first toyed with retirement back in 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.
Last year might also have been her last before she decided on “one last dance” with Lidl-Trek this term.
But it will mean a little more at her last event on British soil, a race she has won twice in its previous guise as the Women’s Tour, and one that this year happens to start on home roads in Yorkshire.
The list of other riders taking part includes double Olympic gold medallist Kristen Faulkner (EF Education – Oatly), former world road race champion Elisa Balsamo, plus Australian duo Sarah Roy and Ruby Roseman-Gannon, and Lorena Wiebes.