9 Jul 2014

Special bikes for fifth Tour stage

1:15 pm on 9 July 2014

The Tour de France's cobbled fifth stage will require the riders to use specially modified bikes.

Nine sections totalling 15.4 kilometres of cobblestones along the 155.5-kilometre route from Ypres in Belgium to Arenberg have turned the stage into a mini Paris-Roubaix.

It has had riders and spectators alike excited since the Tour route was announced last September.

But as the cobbles provide a distinctly different surface to ride on, each team will roll out slightly different equipment more suited to the bumps.