Vingegaard and other Tour favourites tweak form at Critérium du Dauphiné

The reverberations of a fantastic Giro d’Italia are still being felt, but July’s Tour de France is calling, and most of the favourites of La Grande Boucle will fine tune their form at France’s Critérium du Dauphiné starting on June 4. Champion Primož Roglič might not be returning to defend his title, but his teammate, last year’s runner-up and current yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) will be looking to get things tight before July.

There are plenty of climbs on tap with the summit finishes set for Stages 6 and 7. Stage 7 is the queen stage, offering up HC grunts Col de la Madeleine and Col de la Confrerie before the summit finish atop Cat. 1 Col de la Croix de Fer. Of course, there’s always a Critérium du Dauphiné chrono, and this year’s 31.1-km test is on Stage 4. The final day packs an HC, a Cat. 2 and two Cat. 1s into the final 60 km; the 75th edition ends with 1.8 km of a knee breaking 13.7 percent.

Vingegaard will have his hands full with Mikel Landa, Richard Carapaz, Guillaume Martin, Enric Mas, David Gaudu, Jai Hindley, Ben O’Connor, Adam Yates and the Ineos Trident of Egan Bernal, Carlos Rodriquez and 2020 victor Dani Martinez, all of whom will also be lining up in Bilbao on July 1 for the Tour de France. Vingegaard easily won the Itzulia Basque Country after placing third in the Paris-Nice.

Last year’s green jersey Wout Van Aert has opted for the Tour de Suisse, July 11-18, where Remco Evenepoel will return to racing.