Male Team 30 May - 06 Jun
Critérium du Dauphiné
1171 Kilometers 8 Stages
Live pictures of the race will be available on Eurosport 2 (except for stage one) and GCN.
There will be 10-6-4″ available at every non-ITT stage, plus 3-2-1″ at the intermediate sprints.
Eusebio Unzué’s squads have achieved five overall victories in the Dauphiné: two with Miguel Indurain (1995, 1996), another two with Alejandro Valverde (2008, 2009) and one with Arnaud de las Cuevas (1998).
The Critérium du Dauphiné will be the Movistar Team’s main approach towards the Tour de France in 2021, with both Enric Mas and Miguel Ángel López tackling the ‘Grande Boucle’ with the GC in mind. Both will be riding in France from May 30th alognside Alejandro Valverde, who had started the second half of his season a few days earlier at the Vuelta a Murcia.
This year’s Dauphiné route will be as traditional as it can get. Two lumpy stages on Sunday 30th (Issoire) and Monday 31st) (Saugues) will be followed by two sprinter-suited finishes in Saint-Haon (Tuesday 1st June) and Saint-Vallier (Thursday 3rd). The keys to the overall result, though, will be the individual time trial -16km towards Roche-la-Molière, Wednesday 2nd- and the mountain stages on the final weekend.
Friday 4th, the riders will get to Le Sappey-en-Chartreuse (Cat-3), after the previous climbs of the Col de la Placette (Cat-2) and the Col de Porte (Cat-2). Saturday 5th will bring the peloton to La Plagne (HC; 17km at 7.5%), following the Col de Pré (HC) and the Cormet de Roselend (Cat-2). And Sunday 6th, a series of brutal climbs will decide the race’s outcome, with six categorized climbs including the Col de la Colombière (Cat-1) and the Joux Plane (HC) before the finish in Les Gets.