No time to even complete the Giro, the Tour de France plot intensifies as this sunday we have the big Criterium du Dauphine starting with a tough route through the Massif Central and decisive stages in the Alps, a combination that attracts most of the riders that will be targeting the overall in the Tour.
The Route
The opening day, hilly and finishing with a circuit as classic, a very open stage that can see multiple scenarios succeeding.
Stage 2 is quite interesting. On paper the GC riders will fight through it, but they will likely mark each other and we'll see some outsiders succeeding for sure.
The sprint stage? Not exactly but if I can call one then it's this one, although you see breakaway written all over. The small uphill finish won't be too pleasant aswell...
The time-trial, before the mountains it'll put order in the GC and important differences CAN be made here.
Opportunist's paradise. Almost a sprint stage, but has a rough start and a mean steep hilltop close to the end.
The riders arrive in the Alps. Likely a breakaway will succeed here, but the GC race will heat up once again.
The queen stage. The brutal mountain top finish in La Plagne will set big differences and likely the strongest up here will be the yellow jersey into the final day.
Usually a day for raids, but it seems this year it's not hard enough for it. Nevertheless, the Col de Joux Plane is a very hard ascent and there is room for important attacks and big gaps in the final day, that will see the race wrapped up in Les Gets.
Weather for the Week
Long-term forecast indicates the first half of the race should be dry and hot, regular June weather but as the race heads into the Alps, specially on the final weekend, we may get some wet stages.
GC Contenders
*With less than 24 hours to it's start many teams haven't yet confimed their lineup, preview may have some updates later today
This is Ineos' race to loose I state it from the start. After seeing their performance in Catalunya and Romandie with what is the bulk of their Tour team I have no doubt they will be eyeing another dominant win, they definitely have the ability for it, and the team has a good track record aswell having own 5 of the last 10 editinos. They will have a set of leaders, Geraint Thomas, Tao Hart and Richie Porte all in positions to lead and win the race and with the incredible support they have behind aswell I would be surprised not to see them take GC.
Their rivals will be most of the men targeting the Tour besides the Slovenians. You can separate them in those that can time-trial where we will include the likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Steven Kruijswijk who will be leading Jumbo, alongside Sepp Kuss who'll be looking to make his difference in the mountains, there's Ion Izagirre who will be leading Astana, Wilco Kelderman taking Bora's flaf and Brandon McNulty who will take the lead of UAE. In case he finds his consistency, Jack Haig will also be a big card to play, perhaps joining Dylan Teuns in an interesting co-leadership.
Interestingly though, many of the main contenders to Ineos are riders who will loose time on the TT and have to, from the start, look for ways to take time on them. You have on the field of the French Guillaume Martin as a big menace after dominantly taking the Mercantour classic earlier this week, Groupama who will have David Gaudu as their leader for this stint in France, supported by Valentin Madouas who can himself do something in his own ambitions, and despite not local Ben O'Connor has been training in the Alps for some time and after regaining his best form this season he'll be looking for another strong result here. There are more riders who will need to attack for a strong overall, Nairo Quintana included and they will be big threats specially in La Plagne, and Movistar who are coming with their trident, focused on the Tour they're coming with a classic aproach and can definitely do some damage with Miguel Angel Lopez having started his season off well and having Andalucia's overall win recently, Alejandro Valverde who's done really well this season to take some fantastic results and Enric Mas who should be more of a threat in the Tour but here he can also ride well within the Top10.
The Sprinters
The fast men won't really have many opportunities here. The race will be quite hard, I'0m sure some have come for the race days and preparation and will try to seize their opportunities, in Suisse we should see the majority but here we have two big sprinters in Alexander Kristoff who's been down in Mallorca and Mads Pedersen who came from Teide, they should be the fastest men but it won't be easy for them to get many chances of fighting for a win. In the field of the pure sprinters I would add Kaden Groves, and Deceuninck come with a modest team and it is possible that we see Fabio Jakobsen having his first go at a sprint since his return, if not the team still has a nice card in Florian Sénéchal.
Having some climbing legs surely will help, hence why we're seeing some riders like Alex Aranburu and Sonny Colbrelli who should be eyeing some of the punchy days aswell, we can add AG2R who have Clement Venturini and who knows, Greg van Avermaet to discuss some faster finishes.
Prediction Time
⭐ Kruijswijk, Kuss, Kelderman, I.Izagirre, McNulty, G.Martin, Gaudu, Woods, Quintana, MA.Lopez, Mas, O'Connor
Ineos will take the overall and Geraint Thomas is my pick. He's still at his best level, the TT will be crucial and whoever comes out from it in the lead has a good chance to take the overall, likely him as the team is able to support perfectly if needed.
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