Tour 2015: Stage 5 Arras > Amiens
STAGE FACTAmiens is the hometown of 103-year-old Robert Marchand, whose Hour ride of 26.927 km in January 2014 earned him the 100-plus age-group record
Normal service is resumed on Tour after a classic opening four days. The pure sprinters will be rewarded for making it this far, with a dishy sprint finish into Amiens at the end of a circuitous route through the Picardy countryside, beginning in the ancient town of Arras.
Anything worth seeing?
While the peloton follows the usual format of breakaway, chase, catch, sprint, let’s talk about Arras. It has a remarkable network of underground tunnels called the Boves, built in the 10th century as primitive subterranean links between people’s cellars. They were extended by soldiers in WWI to tunnel underneath enemy lines and surprise the Germans. Today’s route passes military cemeteries.
And on the route?
Full of chateaux, rolling fields (no doubt some with sunflowers) and long, open roads, Picardy is classic Tour sprint stage territory. Previous winners on stages into Amiens include Mario Cipollini and André Darrigade, the greatest French sprinter of all time, with 22 stage wins during the Fifties and Sixties. There’s a good reason to get to Amiens in a hurry: the local cuisine includes duck paté in pastry, leek tarts, cheesy crêpes and Amiens macaroons. Yum.
Fast finish
There shouldn’t be anything too tricky on the stage but it will be a long, tiring day nonetheless, and not as flat as the sprinters would hope. But with relatively few pure sprint days on offer this year, expect a frantic and full-on fast finish with the big sprint teams jostling for position.
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