*Tour de France - Stage 4* Tuesday 7th July

Stage 4  »  Seraing  ›  Cambrai   (223.5k)

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This is going to be one of the key stages of the 2015 Tour de France. At 223.5km long, this is the longest stage of the tour and the whilst some will see this as a great chance to make up time or pick up a stage win, some will be having nightmares about the 8 sections and 13.3km of cobbles they're due to face on this stage. We start in Seraing near Liege in Belgium and head West. The only significant climb of the day is the Cat 4 Cote de la Citadelle de Namur which comes after 53km. The peloton hit the first section of cobbles is 1800km long at Pont-à-Celles, north of Charleroi. This is only a warm up for the peloton however.

Roughly 11.5km of the last 46km is cobbled, starting with the secteur pavé d'Artres à Famars which is 1200m long. There are further pavé sections with 40km, 36km and 26km to go before we get to the two final, and largest sections of pavé. Secteur pavé de Fontaine-au-Tertre à Quiévy (2) comes with 23.5km to go and last for 3700m. This section is used in Paris-Roubaix, and although it is normally one of the early sections it carries a 4-star rating in terms of length and difficulty.
Quiévy Pavé could be decisive

Obviously Quiévy comes much nearer the end than it normally is in Paris-Roubaix so that and the difficulty should see this sector have a massive impact on who wins this stage and who makes time on their rivals. Actually, the cobbles themselves on Secteur pavé de Fontaine-au-Tertre à Quiévy aren't generally in the worst state, but 3700m is a very long sector and if it is wet these cobbles will be very slippy. Not only that but they riders have to negotiate a slight rise during this sector. The final Secteur pavé d'Avesnes-les-Aubert à Carnières (1) is 2300m long and by the time they get off this section there will be roughly 10km to go.

This stage should be intruiging. Even if the Grand Tour specialists have managed to get through the crosswinds of Zeeland and the crowds at Huy, this will be a stage where they'll do very well to avoid losing time - its difficult access for the team cars, there will be riders all over the road and any puncture, mechanical or crash will see large time losses. Last year on the cobbles it rained, Froome crashed out (before the cobbles) and Nibali attacked making 2-4 minutes on all the other GC contenders - time he never lost. Lars Boom of Belkin won the stage last year, followed by Fuglsang and Nibali of Astana. That all three of them ride for Astana this year strengthens Nibali's team. Plenty of other cobbled classics riders like Vanmarcke and Cancellara should be freed up by their respective sides to make use of their skills on this sort of course, although others like Stannard, Thomas and Van Avermaet may be kept on domestic duties to help their leaders.

Cambrai is a new arrival city for a tour stage. Cambrai is a thriving city that has been important since the days of the Roman Empire and was heavily damaged in both WWI and WWII. The road into Cambrai has a number of turns, including to sharp left handers after the flame rouge. The finish line is on Rue Pasteur, right outside the town hall.