Route Advice Bath to Warwick and Lincoln to Warwick

[mnichols]

I'm planning my first 200 mile ride, and I was think of a loop from Bath to Warwick

I'm fairly familiar with the roads around the Cotswolds up as far as Stroud and Gloucester, but can anyone help with route advice to Warwick

I don't want to add hills unnecessarily

I'll be joining a friend who is cycling back to Bath from Lincoln. I think we will meet around Warwick, so if anyone can help with a route from Lincoln to Warwick that would be very helpful as neither of us know this area

I'm presuming there are plenty of cafes where I could meet him warwick?

[eileithyia]

Cheltenham, Winchcombe, Broadway, Mickleton, Alderminster, Loxley, wellesbourne, Hampton Lucy, there is a bridge over the M40/A46 junction to take you into Warwick.
or
Tredington, Tewkesbury, Elmley Castle, Evesham, Bidford on Avon, Pick up the stratford greenway into Stratford, Hampton Lucy and as above.

[TrevA]

For Lincoln to Warwick, I'd pick roads that run parallel to the A46, so Hykeham, minor roads to Coddington, east of Newark, then down to Orston, cross the A52 at Elton on the Hill, then head towards Melton Mowbray, then Kibworth, Bruntingthorpe, Lutterworth, Brinklow, Warwick.

Avoid the Nottingham and Leicester conurbations.

[mnichols]

Thanks everyone. Advice gratefully received.

[Annoying Twit]

If you skirt the north of Leicester and up towards Lincoln you could go the way to Lincoln that I did. I was quite happy with my route from Leicester to Lincoln through places such as Harby, Bottesford, and and other villages. Easy to miss all the major urban areas such as Melton Mowbray, Newark on Trent, Grantham, etc. You don't need to go too far out of Leicester to avoid the overly urban bits which straightens out the route a bit.

However, I'm a slow rider. So, you may be looking for different types of roads than the country lanes I prefer.

EDIT: Reverse direction in the description above! You're going from Lincoln to Warwick, I went the other way.