Criterium du Dauphine announces hilly opening stage of 2025 edition
Cycling
The route for the opening stage of the 2025 Criterium du Dauphine has been announced, with a challenging ride from Domérat to Montluçon kicking off the main Tour de France warm up race. The Dauphine is often a brilliant indicator of which riders in teams are best prepared for the Tour in July, and the details of the opening stage were confirmed earlier today by the race organiser, ASO.
Set to take place from Sunday, June 8th, to Sunday, June 15th, the 2025 edition of the Dauphiné will begin with a stage tailor-made for riders who excel on rolling terrain and hilly profiles. Last year, the first stage was claimed by Mads Pedersen, while Primoz Roglic ultimately secured the overall title, fending off a spirited challenge from Matteo Jorgenson to hang on for the overall win on the final day.
The 2025 opening stage spans 189.2 kilometres and offers a mix of flat and hilly sections. The first half of the route is predominantly flat, providing an opportunity for the peloton to settle in. However, the real test begins in the latter half, where riders will face a series of undulating challenges, and the second half of the race includes seven categorized climbs, all ranked as fourth category.
The stage concludes with the Côte de Buffon, a short but steep ascent of 0.6 kilometres at an average gradient of 8.6%. From the summit, the riders will have just 4.5 kilometres remaining to the finish line in Montluçon, ensuring an explosive start to the Dauphiné.
Roglic won two stages on his way to overall victory last year, and Jonas Vingegaard was unbeatable in 2024. It’s actually a rare stage race that Tadej Pogacar has not won, and it remains to be seen whether he will use the famous race in his preparations for his Tour de France defence next season, where he will try and win his fourth yellow jersey.
🤩 Critérium du #Dauphiné 2025 : première explication à Montluçon le 8 juin ! Après Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule en 2024, le #Dauphiné reste fidèle à l'Allier pour son Grand Départ 2025 !
— Critérium du Dauphiné (@dauphine) December 10, 2024
📲 Plus d'info: https://t.co/dVsX4ZGOpq
🤩 Critérium du Dauphiné 2025: Montluçon to host the… pic.twitter.com/Mzm7PyYhK1
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- He is definitely among the best, but marred by bad luck the past few years. With Pogi, MvDP, Remco and Wout dominating the classics, the likelihood for him to win in the classics is slimmer these days even if he's back to his best shape. I like his attacks, more strength to his elbow.
KerisVroom15-01-2025 - Yeh he is cool. I hope he has a good year.1stpastthepost14-01-2025
- Lol good one. I hope Mr Angry gets the point.1stpastthepost14-01-2025
- Go in peace my friend. Eat some fruit and move on.roadman5412114-01-2025
- Killing is not something you can get by with by saying you're sorry. What kind of a person you need to be to kill for fun? How will end a person who starts with killing? Trek has a big + for me forever, for getting rid of him.mikolajjj14-01-2025
- In reality, the one thing Roglic needs to do is not crash.mdemartino14-01-2025
- Okay lets turn this around. So you mikolaiji did something wrong that you regretted. In retrospect thinking it over you realised your mistake you apologised, said you where sorry about what you had done and then tried to move on with your life and put it behind you. Would you like to be reminded of it by some anonymous person on a forum?roadman5412114-01-2025
- Alaphilippe exhudes character.roadman5412114-01-2025
- Comment is nasty? And killing cats for fun is cool?mikolajjj14-01-2025
- Oh he said he was sorry? I guess we can forget it then, that he killed a cat just for fun! Such a nice boy, always says "hello".mikolajjj14-01-2025