After an opening two stages with plenty of climbing and uphill finishes, stage 3 is one that will please the flatlanders. There are no categorized hills on this straightforward course that heads south from the ancient fishing town of St. Malo (population 53,000) to the sprawling industrial port city of Nantes (population 290,000). Most of the stage runs through the rolling green countryside of Brittany and past towns like Calorguen at 31.5km — where Bernard Hinault has a farm and his wife is the town mayor. Roundabouts on the flat run-in through the Nantes suburbs could cause crashes (remember Jan Ullrich’s in the 2003 time trial?).