LANDA LEADS BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS TO CRITÉRIUM DU DAUPHINÉ
The Critérium du Dauphiné is widely regarded as the final dress rehearsal for the Tour de France, attracting star-studded line-ups from the competing 21 teams.
The 75th edition of the eight-stage race starts in Chambon-sur-Lac as the riders take on a mountainous route before the finish in La Bastille – Grenoble Alpes Métropole after covering 1,207.2 km and 21,714 vertical metres of climbing. The race also features a mid-week ITT on stage 4, and while relatively flat, the 31.1km route will contribute to deciding the General classification.
Aside from the ITT, stage 7 will be decisive in the battle for yellow as it features the highest stage finish in history on the Col de la Croix-de-Fer pass at an altitude of 2,067 metres. The stage features over 4,000 vertical metres across just 147.9km. And there will be no let-off on the final day, where the peloton again has over 4,000 vertical metres to tackle before the short steep uphill finish to La Bastille that averages 13.6% over 1.8km.
Mikel Landa leads the Bahrain Victorious line-up and will look for the form that saw him take a podium place at La Flèche Wallone as he also fine-tunes for the upcoming Tour de France. The last time the Basque rider featured in the race, he finished 18th in the GC back in 2020 and then 4th overall at the Tour de France.
A strong line-up will support Mikel Landa, with Jack Haig and Edoardo Zambanini coming straight to the race after securing the team classification at the Giro. Fred Wright and Kamil Gradek return to racing following the classics, as both look to impress for Tour de France selection, while Matevz Govekar and Hermann Pernsteiner complete the line-up.
Sports Director Neil Stephens comments: “Traditionally, this is the French build-up race before the Tour, which also means a lot of hard racing with riders fighting for their place for Tour selection. For us, we’ve got a few guys from the Giro and others coming back to racing.
Landa will be the leader and be supported by Jack, who will be looking to come into the race strong after the Giro.
Looking at the stages, there are no real ‘sprint’ stages which will suit our guys. While it may not be ideal that we don’t have a pure sprinter for the early stages, it will also give opportunities for someone like Fred and Govekar before the big mountain stages later in the week. So we will look to race hard, fine-tune for the Tour and rank as high as possible in the GC.”