Dauphine marks first Tour rehearsal
01 June 2012

Lineup

French event will be the opening test for the Grande Boucle, a demanding route with two ITT's and three days of big mountains in eight stages

The 64th Critérium du Dauphiné, from this Sunday, will be one of the two World Tour alternatives -the Tour de Suisse will come one week later, also with Movistar Team at the depart- for those riders wanting to test their legs with less than one month from the start of tye Tour de France. Two individual time trials -a short, 5k prologue in Grenoble and an endless 53k effort on Thursday- and three difficult, closing, high mountain stages make the French race’s programme, with a short summit finish on Tuesday between the two days suited for sprinters.

Movistar Team will bring a strong block on French turf led by Juanjo Cobo, who will continue with his preparations after training in high altitude in Sierra Nevada. Alongside the reigning champion of the Vuelta a España will be Nairo Quintana (COL), Vasil Kiryienka (BLR), David LópezDavid Arroyo, Rubén Plaza, Imanol Erviti and Costa Rican Andrey Amador, who will try to profit from the great legs he showed in an utterly brilliant Giro d’Italia for him.