PREVIEW
Two months on from being caught up in the horror crash at Itzulia Basque Country, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) will return to action at this crucial pre-Tour de France preparation race.
The pair did not finish stage four of Itzulia, with Evenepoel suffering a broken collarbone in the downhill pile-up, but both are now fit enough to compete again. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) was also supposed to be competing at the Critérium du Dauphiné, but is yet to have recovered enough from his more serious injuries, which he suffered in the same crash.
Along with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), the standout winner of the Giro d’Italia, the four are the big favourites for Tour victory next month.
The Dauphiné is always a key staging post before the biggest race of the year, and Evenepoel and Roglič will want to show that they will be able to challenge Pogačar.
There will be other general classification riders there hoping to prove their form, including Mattias Skjelmose and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
The route, as always, is a mountainous one, with barely a flat road across the eight stages. There are four hilly days, an individual time trial, and then three days in the high mountains to finish.
STAGES
There is not a day where the GC hopefuls can afford to drop their attention levels, with five summit – or at least hilltop – finishes. The flat finishes that do exist will not necessarily be for pure sprinters, with stages one and five featuring multiple climbs before the final run-in.
Even the individual time trial is far from flat, with 427 v
