With the Giro d'Italia archived, it's time to get into Tour de France mode, and there's no better way to do so than diving into the Criterium Dauphine 2025, the quintessential preparation race for the Grande Boucle. From Sunday, June 8 to Sunday, June 15, 8 stages for all tastes through the ancient French province of Dauphine, which today roughly corresponds to the departments of Isère, Drôme, and Hautes-Alpes.

The honor roll features many prestigious names, suffice it to say that in the last 3 years, Primož Roglič has won twice and Jonas Vingegaard once. Despite having a decade-long history - the first edition was held in 1947 - it is one of the few races in which an Italian rider has never triumphed, with the last podium dating back to 1999, Wladimir Belli's third place. The race will be available live on RaiSport and Eurosport.

ROUTE

It starts with a nervous stage, the Domérat - Montluçon of 196 km, which puts 7 category 4 mountain passes in the last 90 km, the last of which, the Côte de Buffon (600 meters at 8.8%), less than 7 km from the finish. It could be a sprint, but sprinters will have to grit their teeth more than usual. Similar story for the Prémilhat - Issoire of 205 km, with 6 mild mountain passes scattered throughout the route and a sprint finish that appears even more likely, given that the final 47 km loop has only a couple of easy côtes.

The third stage, the Brioude - Charantonnay of 207 km, is also not straightforward. In particular, the Côte de Château Jaune (1.2 km at 9.5%) is of interest, as it will be tackled less than 20 km from the finish and sprinters will find it far from easy to hold on, especially if it's approached at full throttle as can be expected.

The first watershed moment in the general classification will come with the time trial on the fourth day, the Charmes-sur-Rhône - Saint-Péray of 17.4 km. The stage is characterized, in its central part, by a steep climb of 1800 meters at 8.5%, which seriously risks cutting the legs of the purest specialists. In the fifth stage, the Saint-Priest - Mâcon of 183 km, it could be the moment for breakaway artists, as the central part of the stage is a continuous up and down, enough to discourage sprinters from holding on yet again, while the last 30 km should be quite fast.

As tradition dictates, the Dauphine will then close with three short but super intense stages, destined to provide great spectacle. Stage 6 will take the riders from Valserône to Combloux for 127 km, with a mountain finish to be interpreted. The final climb is divided into 3 sections, the first leading to the Côte de Domancy (2nd cat., 2.5 km at 9.3%), then a stretch leading to the center of Combloux (3.5 km at 5%) and then the Côte de la Cry (2.7 km at 7.7%) leading to the finish, for a total of almost 9 km of climbing.

The next day will be the time of the Alps and prestigious peaks, with the Grand-Algueblanche - Valmeinier 1800 of 132 km, which will put on the table the Col de la Madeleine (HC, 24.7 km at 6.1%), the 2000 meters of altitude of the Col de la Croix de Fer (HC, 22.4 km at 7%) and then the mountain finish at Valmeinier 1800 (HC, 16.2 km at 6.8%). The race will then close with the Val-d'Arc - Plateau du Mont-Cenis of 133 km. The final judge will be the Col du Mont-Cenis (1st cat., 9.7 km at 7%), which will end 5 km from the finish, before giving way to the plateau.

(altimetry on the cover)

THE FAVORITES

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), in their careers, have found themselves racing against each other only 5 times. Excluding last year's Tour de France, where they finished first, second, and third, the trio crossed paths at the 2021 Giro dell'Emilia and Il Lombardia, when none of them were yet the superstar they are today, at the 2022 Tirreno-Adriatico (won by Pogačar) and the same year's Flèche Wallonne, where they all performed poorly. A new chapter of the rare challenge between the three riders universally recognized as the best in stage races (and not only) is scheduled at the Criterium Dauphine, in a super succulent appetizer of what we'll see in July at the Grande Boucle.

Knowing them, they will all fight to win this race too. The Slovenian, who has only raced the Dauphine in 2020, finishing 4th, is probably the one who arrives in the best shape, given that his 2025 has gone smoothly so far with victories at Strade Bianche, Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and in any race he has done, he has never been off the podium. The Dane hasn't been seen racing for almost 3 months, after the bad hit he took at Paris-Nice, but if he wears a race number, usually, it's because he's going strong. At the Dauphine, moreover, he has always been a protagonist, with the overall victory in 2023 and the kind gift to Roglič in 2022. The Belgian, finally, returned to racing only in April after multiple fractures to shoulders and ribs suffered in training in December, winning the Brabant Arrow and being a protagonist in the Amstel Gold Race, only to then slightly decline and end the first block of races at the Tour de Romandie. Last year he arrived at the Dauphine not at his best, finished 7th while winning the time trial, but then still had a splendid Tour.

Behind them three - Vingegaard can also count on Matteo Jorgenson, 2nd last year, and Sepp Kuss - there is a lineup of riders who will try to watch them from as close as possible, particularly Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Enric Mas (Movistar), without forgetting Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) and Max Poole (Picnic PostNL), author of a Giro d'Italia on the rise. Then there's Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL), who will close his career at the Dauphine and it's legitimate to expect him to be combative from the first to the last day.

Among the fast riders, the presence of Jonathan Milan (Lidl Trek), who will put some good work on his legs before the Tour, stands out, and then Pascal Ackermann (Israel-PremierTech), Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ), Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and Matteo Trentin (Tudor). Among the many stars mentioned, there will also be another, Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who has recovered from his wrist problem and is preparing to live a month and a half of fire in France.