The Rhône-Alpes are putting the finishing touches on race week. Barricades for the Stage 1 criterium in Vizille arrive on Saturday. Mountain towns above Thônes — where the Plateau de Solaison waits at 1,500 metres — are busy with journalists and team buses on reconnaissance. The particular electric expectancy that the Dauphiné generates each June is already in the air.
But this year, it arrives without the riders everyone anticipated.
Tadej Pogačar chose the Tour de Suisse as his Tour de France tune-up. Jonas Vingegaard has not raced since the Giro d'Italia and will not race before July. Remco Evenepoel decided to build directly to the Tour without a stage race in June. The three men who between them have dominated Grand Tour cycling for three seasons are elsewhere — waiting, or conserving, or both.
What remains is actually more interesting than another Pogačar coronation would have been.
The Field: Who Takes Control
Paul Seixas is the race's dominant pre-race narrative. The 23-year-old climber from Decathlon-CMA CGM arrives as the consensus favourite — preparing for his first Tour de France on home roads, in the race his team has specifically designated as his Tour preparation platform. Seixas finished second at Paris-Nice in March and has shown a particular affinity for Haute-Savoie terrain: the sustained 8–10% gradients that favour accumulated power over explosive acceleration. He is the kind of climber who does not attack but instead accelerates slowly and irreversibly until the others can no longer hold the wheel.
The Grand Colombier and Solaison suit him precisely. He arrives as the favourite. Favourites at the Dauphiné have a tradition of being surprised.
Wout Van Aert arrives under different circumstances from the GC contenders. He is not here purely to win overall — his role at Visma-Lease a Bike encompasses stage hunting, team support, and form-testing before July. Since his Paris-Roubaix victory this spring, Van Aert has not raced on the road. This is his first outing back. A Van Aert who is fit and climbing well — who survives the Grand Colombier and arrives at Solaison within striking distance — changes the equation in Grenoble and in Paris.
Isaac del Toro leads UAE Team Emirates-XRG's lineup. The 21-year-old Mexican has progressed through the WorldTour at a rate that surprised even his own team — his climbing ability on sustained gradients is comparable to the best young riders in the world, and the Dauphiné's stage 7 and 8 terrain is exactly the kind of road that confirms or exposes talent. A strong Dauphiné finish elevates del Toro directly into Tour de France GC contention. His teammate João Almeida serves as both support and backup GC option.
Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose bring Lidl-Trek's double threat. Ayuso's consistency on mountain stages has made him one of the most reliable GC riders below the sport's top tier; Skjelmose is dangerous on shorter, punchier finishes and can accelerate on the Solaison's opening ramp in a way that pure diesel climbers cannot match. Two leaders with different profiles means Lidl-Trek can race stages 7 and 8 with different tactics — and force everyone else to respond.
Tobias Halland Johannessen rounds out the GC picture. The Norwegian has had a strong spring and arrives with form pointing upward.
The Route: Where the Race Is Won
Stages 1–5 establish the sprint and breakaway narrative. Stage 1 criterium in Vizille. Stages 2–4 cross the Rhône-Alpes via roads with categorised climbs but no summit finish that reshuffles the GC. Stage 5 introduces the first real climbing test.
Stage 6 finishes atop Crest-Voland — a shorter, steeper ski resort finish that favours pure climbers. This is where the first meaningful time gaps appear on the general classification. Seixas and del Toro will test each other here for the first time.
Stage 7: The Grand Colombier. The Hors Catégorie Col du Grand Colombier via Virieu-le-Petit reaches its summit across 8.4 kilometres at 10.2 percent average — a gradient that does not relent. The Lacets du Grand Colombier, the celebrated hairpin section, comes before the upper sustained ramp. Athletes who have ridden it outside race conditions describe the final three kilometres as the point where the climb's character changes from painful to genuinely threatening. With two stages of accumulated fatigue in the legs, the Grand Colombier will split the GC group decisively.
Stage 8: Solaison decides everything. Beaufort to the Plateau de Solaison, 120.1 kilometres. Four categorised climbs: Col du Pré (Cat 1), Montée de Bisanne (Cat 2), Col des Aravis (Cat 1), and the final Hors Catégorie ascent to Solaison at 11.3 kilometres, 9.1 percent average, finishing at 1,500 metres in Haute-Savoie. The Aravis-to-Solaison sequence in the final 30 kilometres is one of the most demanding stage endings in French cycling. No flats to recover on. No false summits. Just the Aravis descent and then the relentless rise to the Solaison plateau.
The rider who reaches Solaison first on June 14 will have survived two consecutive mountain stages that — in the absence of the three Grand Tour champions — have no pre-determined hierarchy. It could be Seixas. It could be del Toro. It could, with enough form and tactical intelligence, be Van Aert.
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Join ZealZagFollow us on InstagramWhy This Race Matters
The Critérium du Dauphiné — even in its rebranded Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes identity — is cycling's most reliable Tour de France barometer. Pogačar's decision to skip it for the Tour de Suisse is a statement about both his confidence and the Suisse's lower competitive pressure. Vingegaard is conserving everything for the Grand Départ. Evenepoel trusts his altitude training block over race kilometres.
This means the Dauphiné's 2026 winner emerges without defeating the sport's three dominant figures. But they emerge tested on terrain that is genuinely demanding — the Grand Colombier and Solaison do not care who is in the start list. A rider who wins at Solaison on June 14 has won something real.
The race begins Sunday, June 7. For a guide to cycling these climbs yourself, see our Dauphiné cycling route guide. For climbing action in Europe this week, see the WCS Prague Day 1 report.
