Tour de France 2015: Route Location, TV Schedule and Live Stream for Stage 5

After three gruelling stages inspired by the Spring Classics, the 2015 Tour de France will finally settle into a more traditional day of opening-week racing, as Wednesday's Stage 5 will take the peloton from Arras to Amiens along mostly flat roads. NBC Sports and British Eurosport will provide coverage of the stage, which has bunch sprint written all over it.

Tony Martin took the yellow jersey from Chris Froome after a fantastic finale in Stage 4, and the German will be determined to keep hold of his top spot as long as possible. Wednesday's stage shouldn't present much of a challenge, with Peter Sagan, the closest sprinter, over half a minute behind the race leader.

Here's a look at Wednesday's stage.

Stage 5: Arras-Amiens, 189.5 kilometers

Date: Wednesday, July 8

Profile: Flat

Live Stream: NBC Sports Live Extra (U.S.), Eurosport Player (UK)

TV Info: NBC Sports (U.S.), British Eurosport (UK)

For a look at the Stage 5 route and others throughout the competition, check out the Guardian’s interactive guide.

Standings

Pos	Rider	Time
1	Tony Martin (Ger) Etixx - Quick-Step	12:40:26
2	Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky	00:00:12
3	Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team	00:00:25
4	Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal	00:00:38
5	Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo	00:00:39
6	Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team	00:00:40
7	Rigoberto Uran (Col) Etixx - Quick-Step	00:00:46
8	Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo	00:00:48
9	Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky	00:01:15
10	Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Etixx - Quick-Step	00:01:16

Pos	Rider	Points
1	Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto - Soudal	84
2	Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo	78
3	John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin	60
4	Tony Martin (Ger) Etixx-Quick Step	55
5	Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Etixx-Quick Step	53
6	Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky	40
7	Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis	37
8	Bryan Coquard (Fra) Team Europcar	36
9	Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC	35
10	Joachim Rodriguez (Spa) Katusha	30

Pos	Rider	Points
1	Joachim Rodriguez (Spa) Katusha	2
2	Michael Schar (Swi) BMC	1
3	Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo	1
4	Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto - Soudal	1
5	Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky	1

Preview

Michel Spingler/Associated Press

On the surface, Stage 5 looks destined to end in a bunch sprint, although we learned during Stage 2 that nothing should be taken for granted. The roads of northern France are as exposed as it gets, and if the wind picks up during the afternoon, we could once again see massive gaps form in the peloton.

The power sprinters will spend most of the day at the front of the peloton and order their team to chase down any leading groups, so even if the peloton splits, expect the likes of Andre Greipel and Sagan to do battle for the stage win and green jersey.

Greipel has been the top sprinter early in this Tour de France, taking a stage win and looking good during the intermediate sprints, but as shared by Sagan, the gap between the two has been minimal at best:

Sagan has won three consecutive green jerseys for a reason―out of the group of sprinters, he's by far the best at recovering from tougher mountain stages, and he'll steal plenty of points both during unconventional stages and in the latter parts of the Tour. He remains the favourite for the green, although competition will be fierce.

Nacer Bouhanni entered the Tour de France with minor injuries he picked up during the French Championships, per the Inner Ring. And via cycling writer Mikkel Conde, he suffered another crash earlier this Tour. The 24-year-old is yet to have the opportunity to truly organise his sprint train and play a factor, and look for him to focus on this stage to jump-start his campaign.

And then there's Mark Cavendish, who was launched a little too early during the sprint in Stage 2 and paid the price, as he watched several of his top competitors overtake him near the stretch. To his credit, the veteran kept his criticism mostly to himself and seems to have gotten over the poor performance of his sprint train, although Etixx—Quick Step will wish to avoid a similar outcome on Wednesday:

Former rider Robert Millar took a look at the upcoming stage and highlighted the wind as the one factor that could cause the peloton trouble, via Cycling News:

"

A sombre day's racing through the WW1 battlefields of the Somme, good if you're a rider who likes history but bad if you think there'll be time to stop and look. There aren't many trees in this region and there's little to stop the wind causing problems when the peloton gets up onto the plains. This has the potential to be a very nervous stage as there are many changes of direction, small towns, villages and street furniture to contend with. Johan Bruyneel won alone here in 1993 and the average speed was a smidgen under 50kph. It was so fast and chaotic that some of the sprinters teams didn't even know the Belgian was in front.

"

If everything goes according to plan, this is the kind of stage where the peloton gives a small group an early lead, chases them down inside the final 30 kilometres and gathers for a bunch sprint. The top guys for the general classification will conserve energy for Saturday's trip to Mur de Bretagne and the team time trial, which have been scheduled on back-to-back days and will take place on Saturday and Sunday. 

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