Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré begins tomorrow

The Dauphiné Libéré kicks off Sunday with a short time trial prologue in St. Jean de Maurienne, France. The eight day stage race, along with the Tour du Suisse, is considered to be a traditional warm-up race for the Tour de France. There will be many heavy hitters stretching their legs and perfecting their form before Le Grande Bouclé, including Ivan Basso, Robert Gesink, Sammy Sanchez, favourite Cadel Evans and holder Janez Brajkovic.

The last few days will be the most telling and arduous, with a 42.5 km individual time trial, a high mountain stage with six rated climbs finishing on the HC Le Collet D’Allevard, and a final stage that ends with the Croix de Fer and La Toussuire summits.

Lance Armstrong was able to translate 2002 and 2003 wins in the Dauphiné into Tour de France titles, but, in fact, over the past decade victory in the shorter stage race hasn’t turned into success at the Tour. Outside of Armstrong, only Alejandro Valverde, winner of the 2009 Dauphiné, subsequently finished in the Tour de France’s top ten. Interestingly, the other two riders on the Dauphiné podium in those ten years have usually placed higher on the Tour’s GC than the winner.

Cadel Evans  placed second from 2007-2009.