"The Dauphiné Is The Only Stage Race Between Lausanne And Lille, And It Is The Last Public Form Indicator Before The 4 July Grande Départ" — Pogačar Confirms Critérium Du Dauphiné 2026 Start On Sixty-One Days To Tour de France Build
Monday afternoon Monaco. Sixteen hours after sealing his third career Tour de Romandie overall on the closing 16.4km Lausanne TT, Tadej Pogačar has confirmed his start at the 78th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné from 7 to 14 June, the only public stage-race rehearsal on the Slovenian's calendar between the Lausanne podium and the 4 July Tour de France Lille Grande Départ. UAE Team Emirates-XRG released the eight-rider Dauphiné brief at 10:00 local on Monday morning from the team's Monaco service course.
The Dauphiné lineup confirms the team's most explicitly Tour-prep brief of the post-2024 era. Eight-rider squad: Pogačar, Almeida, Ayuso, Soler, Politt, Wellens, Sivakov, Yates — the same Tour de France squad that the team has briefed Le Tour around since the Andorra altitude camp closed on 18 March, with the explicit understanding that the Dauphiné is a dress rehearsal for the Lille opening week and the Pyrenean closing block. Almeida confirmed for the Dauphiné after his Giro d'Italia withdrawal last week and the recovery brief that has run through the Foncebadón altitude block since 22 April.
Pogačar shortens to 1/3 the Dauphiné outright on the post-Romandie consensus market, ahead of Vingegaard at 5/2 and Lipowitz at 12/1 on a Visma-team-line that Niermann confirmed in Sunday's Lausanne press round will run a closing-week mountain block built around the Stage 6 Vaujany summit finish and the Stage 8 Combloux closer that finished the 2023 Dauphiné. The race rolls out from Domérat in the Allier on Sunday 7 June for an 8.4km opening prologue and closes on the Combloux Côte de Domancy summit finish on Sunday 14 June, the cleanest pre-Tour stage-race form indicator the parcours has produced since the 2020 Méribel-Saisies finale.
The Romandie post-race ledger reads as Tour-quality on every metric. The Stage 4 Anzère 6.8 W/kg sustained over the closing 38 minutes is the highest closing-climb output Pogačar has produced outside of a Grand Tour since the 2024 Galibier, the Saturday queen-stage descent to Charmey hit a peak speed of 98.4 km/h, the 41-second GC margin held cleanly through the closing TT against the strongest sub-three-week TT field the race has produced in five editions. The 1/3 Dauphiné price reflects the structural read of an eight-day build where Pogačar enters as the only rider with both the form and the team line to ride for the overall through the closing week.
Speaking to L'Équipe on Monday morning at the Monaco service course: "The Dauphiné is the same race I have ridden every June since 2020. The parcours this year suits the way I want to be riding into Lille. Domérat to Combloux is eight days, two summit finishes, one TT, one closing-day Côte de Domancy stage that I have not ridden as a finish since 2023. The Tour de France is the race that matters. The Dauphiné is the last public dress rehearsal." Asked about the 1/3 Tour-de-France yellow-jersey price he holds on the post-Romandie consensus market: "I do not look at the prices. I look at the numbers. The numbers say I am ready. Lipowitz at Romandie was the cleanest second-place ride against me anyone has put on the table since Vingegaard at the 2024 Critérium du Dauphiné. He will be at the Tour. So will Vingegaard. So will Almeida. The race will be hard."
The Visma-Lease a Bike team-line confirmed in parallel on Monday morning will run Vingegaard alongside Kuss, Van Aert, Benoot, Yates, Tratnik, Affini and Tulett for the Tour-prep block. Vingegaard, who skipped both the Itzulia Basque Country and Romandie this spring after the post-Volta Catalunya Sierra Nevada altitude block was extended by ten days, opens the Dauphiné as the second-favourite at 5/2. Niermann to the Visma Andorra service-course press round on Sunday afternoon: "Jonas has had the cleanest pre-Tour build of his career. The Dauphiné is the rehearsal. The Combloux climb is the day."
Lipowitz's Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe team-line will run the German alongside Roglič for the dual-leadership Tour-prep brief that Aldag confirmed in the Sunday Romandie press round will run through the closing fortnight to the Combloux finale. Lipowitz 12/1 the Dauphiné outright is the third-shortest non-Pogačar non-Vingegaard line on the post-Romandie consensus market, the 22-year-old's second-place ride at Romandie having shortened him from 16/1 the pre-race to 12/1 inside the post-Lausanne 90 minutes. Lipowitz to the post-Romandie press round: "The Tour de France is the goal. The Dauphiné is the form check. I want to be in the top-five at Combloux."
The 78th Critérium du Dauphiné rolls out from Domérat at 13:30 local on Sunday 7 June with the 8.4km opening prologue. Stage 6 Vaujany 19.4km summit finish on Friday 12 June and the Stage 8 Combloux Côte de Domancy on Sunday 14 June the two priced GC days. Pogačar starts last in the closing prologue order at 16:42 local, Vingegaard at 16:40, Lipowitz at 16:38, Roglič at 16:36 in the closing seeding block. The Tour de France 2026 Lille Grande Départ rolls out twenty days after the Combloux verdict.