Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel will face off in June’s Critérium du Dauphiné in what will be a telling and all-star preview of what lies ahead for the Tour de France.
The trio swept last year’s Tour podium in Nice, and this will be facing off the first time this season in the same race.
Race officials confirmed Wednesday that the Tour dominators will race the annual summer dress rehearsal for the Tour, set to run June 8-15 in and around the French Alps.
The race will the first glimpse of how all three will be arriving to the Tour.
All eyes will be on Pogačar.
The Dauphiné is one of the few major races still missing on his otherwise stellar palmarès. He only raced it once in a COVID-shortened route in 2020 when he was fourth overall behind winner Dani Martínez.
After a near-perfect spring, that included victories or podiums in every race he started, Pogačar will race for the first time since winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April.
He’s since been camped at altitude, often times coinciding with Vingegaard, high on Spain’s Sierra Nevada.
Vingegaard, a winner in 2023, hasn’t raced since he abandoned Paris-Nice with a concussion. The Dane has bet everything on hitting his peak for July, so June’s dry run will reveal much.
Evenepoel also lines up with something to prove after coming off an off-season injury that delayed his 2025 debut until he won Brabantse Pijl in April. Fifth and a time trial win at the Tour de Romandie in his last race in May, Evenepoel was seventh last year at the Dauphiné.
Bardet au revoir
No word yet if Primož Roglič — who abandoned the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday — might change plans to defend his 2024 title. The Dauphiné was not on his pre-Tour calendar.
Beyond the “Big 3,” the Dauphiné always draws a deep field. Visma is also expected to bring Sepp Kuss and last year’s runner-up Matteo Jorgenson to support Vingegaard.
Critérium du #Dauphiné 2025 : 3 hommes et un maillot !
Pour la première fois depuis le #TDF2024 et à moins d’un mois du #TDF2025, @TamauPogi, Jonas Vingegaard et @EvenepoelRemco seront réunis au départ d’une course qui aura des allures de répétition générale !
Les… pic.twitter.com/iMdjYHfduY
— Critérium du Dauphiné (@dauphine) May 28, 2025
Florian Lipowitz, Carlos Rodríguez, Santiago Buitrago, Mattias Skjelmose and Enric Mas are among the outsiders gunning for a podium spot.
French riders Lenny Martinez and Guillaume Martin will carry the hopes of the French nation, while Romain Bardet will be starting his final race as a pro.
Once dominated by French riders, the last Frenchman to win the race was Christophe Moreau in 2007.
Challenging course with double summit finale
The 77th Critérium dishes out 1,199.6km of steadily escalating punishment ending high in the Alps.
The race kicks off 8 June with three hilly stages — Domérat to Montluçon, Prémilhat to Issoire, and Brioude to Charantonnay — all stacked with lumpy terrain suited for punchy opportunists.
Stage 4’s 17.4km individual time trial from Charmes-sur-Rhône to Saint-Péray should pit the Tour trio against each other for the bragging rights.
Stage 5’s hilly drag to Mâcon is another day of attrition before the climbing fireworks. Stage 6 to Combloux introduces the first real climbing test, with back-to-back Alpine summit finishes in Valmeinier 1800 and Mont-Cenis on stages 7 and 8, respectively, will decide the overall and set the pecking order for the Tour.
