Tour 2015: Stage 4 Seraing > Cambrai
STAGE FACT
Cambrai has two giant bronze automated bell-ringers on the clock tower of the city hall. They are called Martin and Martine.
For the second year in succession, the Tour tackles the cobbles of northern France. This time around, there are 7 sectors totalling 13.3 km, coming towards the end of a long day in the saddle from Seraing, just outside Liège, to Cambrai.
‘Less technical, more physical’
So said the Tour’s course director Thierry Gouvenou, of this year’s secteurs pavés compared to last year. This year’s cobbled stage is hillier than 2014’s, and almost half of the 13.3 km is saved for the final two sectors: Fontaineau-Tertre to Quiévy is 3,700 m and Avesnes-les-Aubert to Carnières is 2,300 m long. When the riders emerge from there, tired and mudsplattered, it’s just 10km to the finish in Cambrai.
Can we expect the same as last year?
Undoubtedly so. There will be a surprise package; last year it was Vincenzo Nibali who took more than 2.5 minutes out of Alberto Contador. There will probably be one high-profile victim, too. Last year it was Chris Froome (although he crashed out before the stones even began) and in 2010, it was Frank Schleck, who fell and broke his collarbone.
What to look our for
This is a great stage for a day trip from the UK, and it’s not all muddy farm tracks and turnip fields (though there is a lot of that). The stately town of Cambrai was home to the Duke of Wellington’s HQ following the Battle of Waterloo 200 years ago, in 1815, and later, in 1917, it saw the first large-scale deployment of tanks during WWI. If you’re here to watch the cobbles, make sure you sample some of the town’s famous boiled sweets called bêtises, a name that roughly translates as ‘stupid mistakes’.
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