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Stage by stage
stage 4 - Abbeville 
Rouen
214.5 km
Wednesday 4 July
Rouen
214.5 km
Wednesday 4 July
Plain - A sporting perspective
Christian Prudhomme’s Analysis
Riders who regularly take part in the Tour of Picardy are familiar with the pitfalls that the region can hold in store for them. The experts of bordure formations may well take advantage of the wind that blows by the seaside during the whole first part of the stage, which will boasts very beautiful scenery. The favourite riders in the race will have to be extremely careful, as they know how hard it is to make up for lost time caused by their carelessness at the beginning of the Tour.
Abbeville
• Stage town for the first time
• 24,200 inhabitants
• Subprefecture of Somme (80)
The gateway to the Bay of Somme had never previously welcomed the peloton of the Tour de France. The Tour de Picardie is used to passing through the coastal towns that the riders will visit and has also stopped off in Abbeville on several occasions and in particular in 2011. But the race that is the most regularly hosted by the town is the Tour de la Somme. In 2005, Lars Boom, the young Dutch cyclo-cross rider who went on to make a name for himself, achieved one of his first road victories there.
• www.ville-abbeville.fr
• www.ot-abbeville.fr
• www.somme.fr
• www.cr-picardie.fr
• www.picardietourisme.com
• www.letour-abbeville.fr
• www.somme-tourisme.com
• www.baiedesomme.fr
Rouen
• Stage town on 19 previous occasions
• 113,200 inhabitants
• Prefecture of Seine-Maritime (76)
Overlooked before the war in favour of Caen or Le Havre, the capital of Normandy has become a regular stage of the Tour de France, having been featured on the race map for the first time in 1949. Although Victor Hugo was impressed by “the city of a hundred steeples”, for cycling amateurs, Rouen has remained the stronghold of Jacques Anquetil in particular. For his maiden Tour in 1957, the rider, who had not yet earned the nickname of Master Jacques, won his first half stage at home. Three weeks later, he finished his first Tour de France wearing the Yellow Jersey.
• www.rouen.fr
• www.seinemaritime.net
• www.hautenormandie.fr
• www.seinemaritime.net
• www.hautenormandie.fr
• www.seine-maritime-tourisme.fr
• www.normandie-tourisme.fr