COURSE: This team time trial course is 5km shorter and less rolling than last year’s between Joinville and St. Dizier. Also, the straighter, more open roads this year mean that the prevailing southwest winds are likely to be the main difficulty, with likely crosswinds in the final 20km.

FAVORITES: Look for a great battle between Ivan Basso’s CSC team, Armstrong’s U.S. Postal-Berry Floor squad and Jan Ullrich’s T-Mobile formation. Tyler Hamilton’s Phonak team could also be in the mix.

STAGE 4 July 07 Cambrai - Arras (TTT) (40.39mi/65km)

HISTORY: The last time there was a team time trial in this region was in 1984, when the finish at Valenciennes saw Laurent Fignon’s Renault team win by just four seconds over the specialist Dutch teams Panasonic and Kwantum. No Tour stages have finished at Arras.

CAMBRAI:
Starts: 0
Finishes: 0
ARRAS:
Starts: 1 (1991)
Finishes: 0