Course: The fourth long stage in a row, this one (225km) starts on the open, windswept roads of Picardy, tackles a series of short climbs across the Seine Valley, and concludes with more undulations across Normandy. It’s likely that only seconds will separate the race leaders on GC going into this stage, and the yellow jersey could change hands with time bonuses at the intermediate sprints, the last of which is at Pont l’Evêque with 50km to go. A fast, tricky run-in to sprawling Caen, population 113,000, will make it hard for a sprinter’s lead-out train to succeed, and perhaps favor a late, solo attack.

History: There have been 33 stage finishes at Caen in the past 100 years. The last visit here was in 1978 when the great Dutch squad TI-Raleigh won a marathon 153km team time trial, but by just seven seconds over the Belgian C&A team of that year’s final winner Lucien Van Impe. The last road stage to end here was in 1976, when Italian Giovanni Battaglin took a solo flyer to win by 10 seconds ahead of a 90-strong pack led in by the day’s top sprinters, Pierino Gavazzi of Italy, Jan Raas of the Netherlands and Freddy Maertens of Belgium.

Stage 5: Beauvais to Caen 225km

Favorites: With both the yellow and green jerseys in play, the sprinters should again be going for time bonuses at the three intermediate sprints and the finish. The flat, wide finish straightaway favors Boonen over McEwen, while wild cards like Austrian Bernhard Eisel and Italian Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) might play a role.