After an absorbingly open Giro d’Italia, in which the strongest rider in the race appeared to change every few days, the peloton's patrons are set to return to restore some order.
Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel spent May on the sidelines, looking on and training to build their form ahead of this next phase of the season, when the attention of the men’s WorldTour shifts towards France. Now, they'll all make their return to racing at Critérium du Dauphiné.
While it was refreshing to witness such an unpredictable GC race at the Giro, lacking the kind of dominant performance these three men so often produce, the beauty of this year's Critérium du Dauphiné is that they will be racing against each other. When an unstoppable force comes up against an immovable object, something has to give.
Add to that a roster full of star stage hunters and more quality climbers, and we have a real race on our hands. Here's our assessment of how the Big Three and all the other top names are looking ahead of it.
Contenders
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
Phase two of Tadej Pogačar’s 2025 season starts here, as he builds up to a defence of his Tour de France title by trying to win the Dauphiné for the first time in his career. Phase one was every bit as stunning as his history-making 2024 exploits, as he ended the Spring Classics campaign having ridden seven races, winning four of them, and making the podium in the other three. Any doubts that perhaps this one-day success is taking the edge off his stage racing are countered by his crushing overall victory and three-stage haul at the UAE Tour in February, although this is set to be a much tougher field.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
This time last year Jonas Vingegaard was still in recovery from a horror crash at Itzulia Basque Country, unable to ride the Dauphiné and his participation at the Tour de France still uncertain. While there are no such doubts this year, his 2025 season has still been far from straightforward, and he goes into the Dauphiné having not raced since abandoning Paris-Nice with concussion almost three months ago. But the word from Visma-Lease a Bike while he has been high altitude training in Sierra Nevada is that he has made progress even from his peak of two years ago, and should therefore be well poised to take on Pogačar and again triumph at a race he won in 2023 and helped teammate Primož Roglič win in 2022.
Evenepoel will be hoping for a better performance than on his stage racing return at the Tour de Romandie (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step)
After a compromised start to the season, Remco Evenepoel hopes to be fit and firing all cylinders at the Dauphiné. His form since returning from injury this season has been patchy, with typically strong rides to win De Brabtanse Pijl and the time trial stage of the Tour de Romandie interspersed with underwhelming displays at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the mountains at Romandie, but you'd expect him to be more consistent now he has some racing and high altitude training in his legs. A time trial on stage four provides him a chance to seal control of the GC race, although he went on to fall to seventh overall having done so last year, and has, surprisingly, still never won a week-long WorldTour stage race.
Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious)
One of the most intriguing names on the start list of this year’s Dauphiné is Lenny Martinez. Having been the source of much excitement with many eye-catching performances over the past few years, 2025 is promising to be the year that the 21-year-old really breaks through, having landed second overall and the queen stage at the Tour de Romandie, and a competitive uphill finish stage at Paris-Nice. Home French fans are waiting with bated breath to see what he can do, ahead of a scheduled Tour de France appearance after.
Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike)
What is it with Matteo Jorgenson and French stage races? He won a second successive Paris-Nice title this spring, having also finished second overall at the Dauphiné last year. He'd love to go one better this year, and his form at Paris-Nice certainly suggests he’s capable of it, but will this year ride alongside Jonas Vingegaard rather than as Visma’s outright leader; he could form part of a two-pronged strategy to try and take on Pogačar.
Jorgenson won Paris-Nice earlier this year after Vingegaard crashed out (Billy Ceusters/ASO)
Other Contenders
One of the stars of last year’s race, Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), who won a stage and finished fourth overall, returns, but without the form he brought into that edition - whereas he won last year’s Tour de Romandie, this year he only placed sixth.
In much better shape is Enric Mas (Movistar), having made the podium at Itzulia Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya – very eye-catching results for a rider who tends to save his best for Grand Tours rather than week-long stage races. However, for whatever reason, the Dauphiné has never quite agreed with Mas, the highest finish in his previous five appearances here being a lowly 11th.
Mattias Skjelmose leads Lidl-Trek on the back of their sensational Giro d’Italia, while the young and impressive Florian Lipowitz hopes to change Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe’s fortunes with the form that saw him place second at Paris-Nice, fourth at Itzulia Basque Country and win Amstel Gold Race.
Stage hunters
The opening three stages that precede the time trial and the mountains all feature enough hills to complicate matters for the sprinters, and the start list is notable for the number of puncheurs on it
Axel Laurence (Ineos Grenadiers) will like the look of these stages, as he chases his first win of the season; as will Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), the man who denied Laurence that win at Itzulia Basque Country with a spectacular long-range effort, the kind of which we can anticipate him trying more of. A stage win at the recent Tour of Norway suggests Max Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) could be coming into the form that saw him achieve so much last year, while Jhonathan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates XRG) would love this terrain, if given time off from Pogačar domestique duties.
Milan is the pick of the sprinters heading to the Dauphiné this year (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Jonathan Milan is easily the quickest man on the start list in terms of sprinting, and so it will be up to his Lidl-Trek team to try and control things for bunch finishes. Uno-X Mobility are also likely to be invested in doing so, with both Søren Wærenskjold and Magnus Cort riding.
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale have stage-hunting options for both the hills and the mountains in Benoît Cosnefroy, Aurelian Paret-Peintre addition to GC man Felix Gall, while Santiago Buitrago is a potential winner in both kinds of terrain, as well as a possible co-leader for the GC alongside Bahrain-Victorious teammate Lenny Martinez.
Prediction
We think Tadej Pogačar will ride to victory ahead of Jonas Vingegaard.
