Critérium du Dauphiné Race Preview 🇫🇷

Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel face each other ahead of the Tour de France

The big three are back. Photo courtesy of SWpix.

Only a few short days after the conclusion of the Giro d’Italia in Rome, attention has already begun to shift towards the Tour de France next month, with the start of the Critérium du Dauphiné coming up at the end of this week.

Often featuring multiple Alpine summit finishes in its route, the Dauphiné has long been the key preparation race for La Grande Boucle, as contenders for the maillot jaune regularly use the eight-day stage race as their final tune-up before July.

This year’s race is no different, as Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel will all be in attendance, with all three facing off against each other in the same race for the first time since last year’s Tour de France, in which they occupied all three steps of the final podium in Nice.

Pogačar will return to racing after going head-to-head with Evenepoel in the Ardennes, after having begun his Spring Classics campaign at Strade Bianche in March. It will be intere…