The Tour de France's traditional build-up race, the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (formerly the Critérium du Dauphiné) arrives this year with a new name and a new name on everyone's lips. Last year's edition was a who's who of general classification royalty — Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz — jostling over eight stages in the eastern Massif Central and the Savoie alps. This time, France's 19-year-old phenomenon Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) arrives as the unambiguous headline act, carrying the weight of a nation's expectations into his final race before a debut Grand Tour that much of the cycling world has already pencilled into their diaries.
Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2026 route
The race runs from June 7th to 14th, starting in Vizille and finishing with a summit finale at Plateau de Solaison (which will make its debut at the Tour in July). Eight stages, roughly 1,200 kilometres, a team time trial in Perreux on stage three, and a final weekend that stacks Crest-Voland, Grand Colombier and Solaison back to back. It is, by design, a precursor to what July will ask of the GC contenders — hard climbs late in an arduous week of racing.
Contenders
Paul Seixas
Paul Seixas won Itzulia Basque Country and La Flèche Wallonne, then finished second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège — following Pogačar's initial attack on La Redoute before conceding to the Slovenian's superior punch on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. All of this at 19, in his first full WorldTour season. The French cycling public, starved of a genuine GC heir since the Hinault era, has responded with something approaching delirium.
He arrives here not just as the favourite but as a man on a specific mission. His team, Decathlon CMA CGM, have been meticulous in preparation: a recent altitude camp in the Sierra Nevada and are arriving in high spirits after Felix Gall's second place to Vingegaard at the Giro d'Italia.
What remains unknown is how Seixas handles eight consecutive days of Grand Tour-style racing, the cumulative fatigue that no spring Classic or week-long stage race can fully replicate. The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is precisely where that question gets an answer — and where Decathlon CMA CGM will learn, not just the media, whether their young leader is ready.
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Isaac del Toro
The 21-year-old Mexican climber, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has had a stop-start 2026 campaign so far — winning the UAE Tour, finishing third behind Pogačar and Seixas at Strade Bianche, winning Tirreno-Adriatico before crashing out of Itzulia Basque Country. UAE have been careful with his programme, but some of his climbing numbers across the spring suggest he should be in good shape heading into the key summer period. The final mountain weekend here, with its repeated summit finishes, suits Del Toro well. He will be one of the few starters with a chance of unsettling Seixas on the road, but it will take some doing — and will need a strong team around him.
Read more: Poise, power, pérdida — Isaac del Toro's rise to cycling stardom
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João Almeida
Del Toro's teammate, João Almeida, provides the perfect foil. The Portuguese rider offers the thing Seixas does not yet possess: Grand Tour experience. Almeida knows how to pace a week-long stage race, how to manage his climbing without blowing GC ambitions, and how to stay calm when a race fractures. UAE are hoping to send him here in good shape, after he was forced to skip the Giro. He may lack the instinctive climbing punch of the younger names, but in an eight-day race with a team time trial, you can't count him out.
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Juan Ayuso
Juan Ayuso is a perpetual fixture in GC previews, and not without reason — his Lidl-Trek team are convinced the Spaniard "has everything to be a Grand Tour winner". Like his former teammates, Del Toro and Almeida, Ayuso hasn't enjoyed the run of the green in 2026. The Lidl-Trek leader won the Volta ao Algarve in February but then crashes at Paris-Nice and Itzulia Basque Country wreaked havoc on a spring that was shaping up well. If he regains the early-season form he was showing, he can hope to podium the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
(Image credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Other contenders
Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos) is the Scottish climber whose fourth place at last year's Tour de France was a breakout performance, and a stage that ends on the Solaison climb plays to his strengths. His teammate is also one to watch. Likewise, Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) both bring podium ambitions.
Other riders aiming for the GC include Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar), Onley's teammate Kévin Vauquelin, Ayuso's teammate Mattias Skjelmose and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious).
Outside of the GC battle, there are a number of other riders using the race for their final build-up to the Tour. Paris-Roubaix winner Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) is on a road race startline for the first time since his win at the Hell of the North. The Belgian will likely challenge on the flatter finishes on stages two, four and five and will be a strong component of Visma's TTT squad, as they make their final preparations towards the big team test on stage one of the Tour in Barcelona in July.
Also look out for stage hunters Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Dorian Godon (Netcompany Ineos), Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek).
Prediction
The race ultimately bends toward Seixas. The parcours look made for him. Ayuso will hope to push him on Solaison. But this is Seixas's week, and his stage.
