Preview Faun Drôme Classic 2026 - UAE, Visma, Lidl-Trek and Astana all in the mix for incredibly packed hilly classic

The Faun Drôme Classic is going to be taking place on the 1st of March and is the continuation of the extensive French one-day race calendar - whilst also being the second of two highly prestigious races over the weekend. The race is expected to start and finish at 11:55 and 16:25CET.

The race is younger than its weekend sibling the Faun-Ardèche Classic, however it has a similarly strong reputation. Although its debut edition in 2013 was cancelled due to snow, in 2014 Romain Bardet rode to victory before he would go on to become one of the country's most popular figures in modern cycling. In 2022 Jonas Vingegaard notably took his only one-day race victory, building towards his first Tour de France win.

Anthony Perez won in 2023, Marc Hirschi won in 2024 and in 2025 it was Juan Ayuso who took the victory after a solo attack ahead of Mattias Skjelmose.

The route features many climbs. As in the Faun-Ardèche Classic the riders take on two loops of an initially hilly circuit that has four small ascents, but then face the toughest climbs towards the end.

Inside the final 75 kilometers there are none less than 9 categorized ascents, all of them either featuring challenging gradients, distance or both.The Col de la Grande Limite, 4 kilometers at 6.3% which ends with 38 kilometers to go, is the one most likely to be used by the climbers as it will be the longest effort of the day.

The riders then face several short climbs which will make for explosive efforts and tactical racing, as there are a lot of flat roads inbetween. The finale into Étoile-sur-Rhône is also in a slight uphill drag - 1.1Km at 5%, however only a few riders are expected to be within a shot of victory after so many different ascents that are to be faced. Even in a sprint, the puncheurs will ordinarily have the advantage on this terrain.

*** Jan Christen, Romain Grégoire
** Matteo Jorgenson, Mattias Skjelmose, Christian Scaroni, Lenny Martínez
* António Morgado, Igor Arrieta, Pavel Sivakov, Ben Tulett, Quinn Simmons, Clément Champoussin, , Axel Laurance, Dorian Godon, Paul Lapeira, Nicolas Prodhomme, Ben Heally, Harry Sweeny, Jarno Widar, Alex Aranburu, Tom Gloag

Pick: Jan Christen

How: Small group win.