Cycling. Critérium du Dauphiné: Vingegaard, Pogacar, Evenepoel... A big rehearsal before the Tour

The Critérium du Dauphiné begins Sunday with a dream field. The week-long race will serve as a dress rehearsal, just a few weeks before the Tour de France.

Pogacar-Vingegaard, the duel reactivated

We've been waiting for this for a year. Since Tadej Pogacar 's victory over Jonas Vingegaard in the 2024 Tour de France, we haven't seen the two rivals in the same race. Since then, the Slovenian has become world champion, won three new Monuments and even participated in Paris-Roubaix ( ^2nd ), while the Dane has been very rare. If they arrive with a different dynamic, they will have the same desire: to mark their territory before the Tour de France (July 5-27).

But Pogacar, the ogre that he is, will certainly also want to win a race that is still missing from his list of achievements ( ^4th in 2020 for his only participation) while Vingegaard won it in 2023 after a second place the previous year. Their summit meeting is the first of this magnitude on the Dauphiné since the duel between Alberto Contador and Chris Froome in 2014.

"The field here is incredible," Tadej Pogacar said Saturday during a video press conference. "It's almost like the Tour de France. I'm here to win, but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself because I have just completed a big training session."

Evenepoel, the third man

Third in the last Tour de France behind Pogacar and Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel aims to get "closer" to the two best stage riders in the world. The Dauphiné will be an important milestone for the two-time Olympic champion, who has "no specific goal" but hopes for "good results." "I'm relieved, happy, and proud to be in better shape than I was a year ago at the start of this race. I'll be able to validate my preparation, which went very well, and see where I stand in relation to Tadej and Jonas, the two main contenders for victory," he explained at a press conference on Saturday.

Wednesday's time trial should suit him, but we'll especially wait and see how the Belgian performs in the high mountains during the final weekend. 1.5 kg lighter than last year, the Soudal Quick-Step leader will be able to see exactly where he stands against the best climbers in the peloton.

Bardet, one last one for the road

At 34, Romain Bardet will be making his final pedal strokes at the Dauphiné on home soil, notably with the start of the third stage at home in Brioude. Even though he hasn't been there since 2020, the race "holds a special place in my heart" and he almost won it in 2016 ( ^2nd , 12 seconds behind Chris Froome). This time, the Auvergne climber will be aiming above all for a stage victory, for example in Combloux on Friday, even though he knows that the field will be very strong and he doesn't know how he will cope with the Giro, which is a new race for him.

Van der Poel on the road

A small fracture in his wrist after a mountain bike crash on May 25th almost compromised his plans, but Mathieu van der Poel will be at the start of his first Dauphiné . Too heavy for the mountains, Van der Poel will aim for the early stages for punchers and will mainly seek to build his form with a view to the Tour de France.