While most of the cycling world is firmly focussed on the countdown to the Giro, a number of the sport's other protagonists prepare to start one of the largest French stage races outside the WorldTour, the 4 Days of Dunkirk. The 5-day event is held in the northwestern part of France and is a prestigious one whose winner needs to be able to overcome the numerous steep climbs in the area and handle the strong wind that is often seen in the region. Starting at Wednesday at 15.45 CEST, you can follow the first 3 days of the race live on CyclingQuotes.com.

Besides the biggest French teams, 2 foreign ProTeams will participate in the event as Tinkoff-Saxo and Giant-Shimano have all included the race in their schedule. It is no surprise that the race has been able to attract a strong line up of sprinters. Defending champion Arnaud Demare will be back to defend his title and he will be up against riders like Gerald Ciolek, Sam Bennett, Ramon Sinkeldam, Nikias Arndt, Samuel Dumoulin, Lloyd Mondory, Matteo Pelucchi, Yannick Martinez, Michael Kolar, Erwann Corbel, Tom Van Asbroeck, Kenneth Vanbilsen, Jempy Drucker, Adrien Petit, Stevn Tronet, Timothy Dupont, Benjamin Giraud, Joeri Stallaert and Antoine Demoitie in the bunch sprints. At the same time, riders like Dumoulin, Pierrick Fedrigo, Sylvain Chavanel, Pieter Jacobs, Laurens De Vreese, Cesare Benedetti, Stephane Rossetto, Maxime Vantomme, Julien El Fares and Sebastien Delfosse will try to make use of the numerous small climbs to split things up.

Starting at 15.45 CEST, you can follow the hilly third stage here. It finishes with four laps on a difficult circuit with 4 climbs and should provide the attackers with a chance to put Arnaud Demare under pressure.