Tour de France 2015 Stage 5 preview: Arras - Amiens Metropole, 189.5 km

In his official statement on this stage, route designer Thierry Gouvenou points out with pride that the towns of Arras and Amiens are only 70km apart by the most direct route, but that stage 5 is actually 189.5km long.

The route heads north from the start, in the opposite direction to Amiens, briefly turns east, then goes south before describing an S heading west to Amiens.The landscape around here is flat and exposed, crossing from the Pas de Calais department to the Somme, where pitched battles were fought over a few miles of territory on the flat plains during the Great War.

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