Stage 4: Le-Touquet-Paris-Plage @ Lille-Métropole
The Tour de France now returns to its home soil, after a three-day visit to England. And don't be fooled by the name of the starting town for the 4th stage, as it's a seaside resort in Pas-de-Calais, not Paris Plages, an artificial beach set up during the summer for 3.5km along the Seine since 2002, right in the heart of Paris. A relatively flat course will lead the cyclists to the Belgian border.
Le-Touquet-Paris-Plage
Paris-Plage, on the banks of the Seine
Located on the Opal Coast, south of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Le-Touquet-Paris-Plage is a seaside resort of 5,000 inhabitants that welcomes up to 250,000 people in the summer. From 1940 to 1944, no less than 40,000 Germans occupied the town, and hotels and villas were plundered. In 1943, they demolished the most prestigious hotel of the time to recover materials that were sent to Germany by train. On each wagon was written "donations from the French to their German friends". In June 1944, Allied bombings were very intense and caused immense damage, requiring significant reconstruction efforts. The commune was finally liberated on September 4, 1944, by the Canadian army!
The finish is in Lille Métropole, a conglomeration of several urban centers (or towns) whose suburbs eventually merge, including Tourcoing, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, and Roubaix. The region is keen on cycling, and the city has its own cycling team, the Roubaix Lille Métropole club, founded in 2007, two of whose original members are now with professional teams: Yauheni Hutarovich (AG2R La Mondiale) and Cédric Pineau (FDJ.fr), the latter selected by his team for the 2014 Tour.
When you say Roubaix, you mean cobblestones. This stage is therefore very important for those aspiring to overall victory because the finishing position of the stage will determine the starting position of the team directors' cars behind the peloton the next day, a significant detail considering the difficulties of Stage 5 and its challenging cobbled sections.
Discover Lille, nicknamed the "Capital of Flanders". Lively and surprising! :
Ultimately, a stage that should once again favor the sprinters. Will one of them manage to outclass Kittel, who seems untouchable... Sagan, Coquard?
References: