Critérium du Dauphiné 2026 Preview: Pogačar, Evenepoel And Roglič Open Their Tour Accounts In The Newly Renamed Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
The last and most revealing dress rehearsal of the Grand Tour season is upon us. The 2026 Critérium du Dauphiné — racing this year under its new official banner, the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes — runs from 7 to 14 June, and as ever it doubles as the definitive form check before the Tour de France. With the Grand Départ in Barcelona now less than a month away, the eight-day French stage race is where the July contenders show their hand.
At the head of a formidable field sits Tadej Pogačar, the world champion who has deliberately raced a lighter programme than his rivals through the spring and arrives in France with everything pointing toward a single objective. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader has spent recent weeks at altitude, and the Dauphiné is his chance to convert that work into competitive sharpness against the very men he expects to fight in July.
The opposition is unusually deep. Remco Evenepoel heads to the Dauphiné with the time trials and summit finishes both squarely in his wheelhouse, while Germany's Florian Lipowitz continues a steep upward trajectory that has made him one of the most talked-about stage racers of the season. Isaac del Toro, fresh from a breakthrough run of results, lines up as another UAE card, and the evergreen Primož Roglič brings a champion's pedigree and a point to prove after a frustrating run of luck in the biggest races.
One name conspicuous by his uncertainty is Jonas Vingegaard. Having just completed the Grand Tour set by winning the Giro d'Italia in Rome, the Dane faces a delicate balancing act: the Dauphiné is the obvious sharpener, but three weeks of all-out racing in Italy may make a low-key recovery block the wiser route to the Tour. Whether Visma-Lease a Bike risk their leader here or keep their powder dry will be one of the quiet subplots of the week.
The route, as always, saves its verdict for the mountains. The opening days offer chances for the breakaway and the puncheurs before the race tilts decisively uphill in its second half, with the steep ramps of the Haute-Savoie — the Côte de Domancy among them — providing the kind of explosive finale that has historically separated the genuine Tour favourites from the pretenders. A mid-race time trial will give the rouleurs their moment and force the pure climbers to limit their losses before the gradients tilt in their favour.
Beyond the GC battle, the Dauphiné is also a proving ground for domestiques angling for Tour selection and for second-tier teams hunting the stage win that can define a season. Breakaway specialists will target the transitional days, and the sprinters who do make the trip will know their opportunities are few and worth fighting for.
By the time the race concludes on 14 June, the picture for July should be considerably clearer. If Pogačar arrives in Barcelona having dominated here, the Tour conversation may already feel settled before it begins. If one of his rivals lands a blow in the Alps, the Dauphiné will have done exactly what it always does — rewrite the favourites' list one week out from the biggest race in the world.