A £4.004m hosting agreement has been signed for the 2027 Tour de France to pass through parts of Westmorland and Furness, bringing a major international cycling event to roads near Kendal on Saturday 3 July 2027.

Stage 2 will start in Keswick and finish on The Strand in Liverpool on the same day. Riders will travel south from Keswick through the Lake District, passing Thirlmere, Grasmere, Rydal Water and Windermere before continuing through the Lyth Valley, towards Milnthorpe and into Lancashire.

Kendal is not on the official route. The nearest sections are the A5074 in the Lyth Valley, about four miles west of the town, Bowness, about eight miles north-west, and Milnthorpe, about seven miles south on the A6.

What the £4m agreement covers

Westmorland and Furness Council has signed up as a Host Authority rather than hosting the stage start or finish. Its agreement is with Grand Départ 2027 Ltd, the company delivering the UK stages.

The council says negotiations took “many weeks”. Its responsibilities cover people and planning, highways and local authority operations, marketing and communications, and an impact programme. A gold, silver and bronze command structure has been established to manage the day.

The first seven of the council’s 12 listed tasks are described as “essential operational requirements”. They include highways maintenance, traffic management, hostile vehicle mitigation, barriers, security and stewarding, toilets, radio communications, towing, signage and wayfinding, spectator and travel modelling, big screens, local marketing and communications, and social and cultural programmes.

The remaining work will be developed with the Cumbria Combined Authority, Cumbria Tourism, community groups and employers. The council says the scope and scale of those elements remain flexible.

A condition agreed by the council’s Leader on 20 July 2026 was that the authority would not have to remove and replace infrastructure for the race. The decision record says that condition has been met, with negotiations concluded “with no requirement for the Council to remove or replace the infrastructure.”

How the money will be funded

The anticipated cost is £4.004m, made up of £2.124m in capital spending and £1.880m in revenue spending. The council says the figure represents “the minimum activity required to host the event” and includes a 10% contingency.

The proposed funding is:

  • £2.124m of capital from the Cumbria Combined Authority’s highways allocation
  • £1.564m of revenue funding from the Combined Authority
  • £0.357m from the council’s existing budgets
  • £0.050m for spectator management, dependent on funding being sourced

That means about £3.69m is expected from the Combined Authority, but the funding has not yet been formally agreed. The council is signing the Hosting Agreement before the Combined Authority confirms funding for 2026/27 and 2027/28. A separate three-way funding agreement with the Combined Authority and Cumberland Council is expected to follow.

The decision record also warns that some risks could exceed the contingency, including “a short notice change of route due to local reasons”. Legal advice, the budget breakdown and the draft Hosting Agreement have been withheld from the public because the council says they contain financial, business or legal information.

Road closures and what Kendal travellers need to know

The race will require Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders for road closures. A traffic management plan is due to be developed with emergency services, bus operators and affected communities, but no order has yet been advertised and the closure hours have not been published.

The roads identified as affected for people travelling from Kendal are the A591 towards Windermere, the A5074 through the Lyth Valley, the A590 near Levens where the A5074 joins it, and the A6 through Milnthorpe. Anyone travelling south or west on Saturday 3 July 2027 will need to plan around the event.

Further details on diversion routes and spectator arrangements will come later. The council says a briefing for town and parish councils is being arranged, while organisers have produced more than 40 toolkits for communities and businesses.

Staff will be required on the Saturday and during evenings. The council has also agreed to a Master Services Agreement allowing equipment and services to be bought centrally for host authorities. However, each purchase will require a separate statement of work approved under procurement rules.

For spectators, parking in Bowness and Windermere is expected to be a practical challenge. The council has previously displayed the Grand Départ trophy at Westmorland County Show and said the race attracts 10 to 12 million roadside spectators each year, with broadcasts in more than 180 countries.