Critérium du Dauphiné 2023: favorites, route, how to watch

With almost no time to assimilate what happened in the Giro d'Italia, we turn our heads to the Tour de France and, of course, to the previous simulation that every year becomes the Critérium du Dauphiné with the main favorites to win the grande boucle coming out of the competitive lethargy that for most of them has been the last month.

Victory in the next Tour de France goes through the Dauphiné

After a week with hardly any competitive activity following the end of the Giro d'Italia, the peloton returns to activity with the race starting next Sunday, June 4th for 8 stages until the following Sunday, June 16th. A race that, due to its route and the fact that it shares organization with the Tour, in the hands of ASO, year after year becomes the stage chosen by the main cyclists to test their level of form and make the final adjustments in preparation for the Tour de France.

The favorites to win the yellow

As is usually the case every year, the participation presented by this Critérium du Dauphiné 2023 can only be described as spectacular, starting with a Jumbo-Visma defending the double achieved last year after the victory of Jonas Vingegaard and the second place of the recent winner of the Giro d'Italia. Primoz Roglic. Jonas Vingegaard, also a reigning winner of the Tour de France, starts again in this Dauphiné as the main favorite. Next to him he will have the best of the Dutch team, with names like Steven Kruijswijk or Dylan Van Baarle.

As in the Italian race, INEOS Grenadiers will base its chances of victory on the power of a strong team rather than on the presence of a really solid leader. In theory, the British squad should rely on Carlos Rodríguez, although his performance will be a mystery after not having raced since breaking his collarbone during Strade Bianche. Also doubtful will be the performance of Egan Bernal, who has not yet returned to his old ways and who, in spite of everything, showed a good level in the recent Tour of Hungary.

Bora Hansgrohe has reserved this season for the French race, which will be the target of last year's Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley of whom we have seen very little at the beginning of the season. An 8th place overall in the Volta a Catalunya seems a poor result for a rider of his level.

While Tadej Pogacar continues his recovery from the scaphoid fracture he suffered during Liège-Bastogne-Liège, UAE Team Emirates will appear in Dauphiné with Rafal Majka and Adam Yates as leaders, looking to surprise in the mousy stages that await the participants.

We are also eager to see what Enric Mas, who is showing a more ambitious side this season, is capable of giving and who will be the mainstay of a Movistar Team that will also line up Matteo Jorgenson, who has been growing to become one of the most important riders during the spring of the team.

Finally, we cannot fail to mention Mikel Landa who, without being the best in anything, is a solid and courageous cyclist who, once again, will try to give that extra point that separates him from being among the best to be in a position to win.

Route of the 2023 Critérium du Dauphiné

The middle mountain will undoubtedly be the protagonist of this edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné in a proposal that moves away from the usual overdose of big mountain passes that the French race usually offers.

Already at the start, the first two stages are real mountain ranges full of small passes where who knows if any team will try to turn the race upside down in anticipation of not being able to fight on equal terms in the final part of the week.

The third day proposes a friendlier route, perhaps the only one where we can see a mass finish that serves as a prelude to the time trial of the 4th stage, with a juicy distance of 31.4 km, long for the usual in these times that should begin to define the classification before facing the next day. Another day of medium mountains that serves as a prelude to the stages of Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The first of them features an uphill finish at Crest-Voland, preceded by the Col des Aravis, the first place where we could start to see some serious movement. Saturday's stage is undoubtedly the queen stage with a finish at no less than the Croix de Fer, well, actually a few kilometers below the famous pass, in the resort of Saint Sorlin d'Arves. A colossus preceded by the Mollard and a real monster like La Madeleine.

The triplet of mountainous days and this edition of the Dauphiné will close with a stage that will take the peloton to La Bastille, a town on the outskirts of Grenoble, with a truly terrifying last 50 kilometers that will climb Col du Granier, classified as Hors Categorie; Col du Cucheron, second; Col de Porte, a hard first and finish in La Bastille, a wall of 1.8 kilometers at 14.2% average gradient.

There is plenty of land to see the show, now we just need the actors of this movie to offer us their best version so we can enjoy the cycling that fans of this fantastic sport are so passionate about.

How to watch the Critérium du Dauphiné 2023

As usual Eurosport will intensively follow the race, broadcasting the stages at around 15:00. However, the coincidence of dates with the Roland Garros tennis tournament, the main event for the channel based in France, may mean that some of the stages, depending on the matches scheduled, cannot be seen live on conventional channels and it will be necessary to resort to the extra channels on its web application.