The Critérium du Dauphiné will showcase the stars for one of the last times as we head towards the Tour de France in July. This June 5 to 12 in southeast France, the riders will face eight stage, mountains aplenty with most eyes on favorite Primoz Roglic and his Jumbo-Visma team.

The race begins Sunday in Ardèche and comes to an end at the Plateau de Solaison in Haute-Savoie, one year after Richie Porte (INEOS Grenadiers) took home the yellow leader's jersey. Mountains rule – with the finish climbs of Vaujany and Chastreix-Sancy as well as the Plateau de Solaison – but sprinters and attackers will get their chances as well on a few of the other stages. To make the race complete, and a proper testing ground ahead of the Tour de France, stage four features a 31.9km time trial from Montbrison to La Bâtie d'Urfé.

With an eye on the Tour two weeks later, the opening time trial in Copenhagen and the final time trial on stage 20, Rocamadour, this stage and all the others take even greater importance. And the stress couldn't be higher. In 2020, Primoz Roglic crashed and abandoned, so did his teammate Steven Kruijswijk. Daniel Martínez won that race for EF Education and would later sign with team INEOS Grenadiers.

Jumbo-Visma is corralling all of its heavy hitters for the week long race in France with Roglic, Kruijswijk, Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, Rohan Dennis and Christophe Laporte in its roster. Of note, American Sepp Kuss, who was recently training with Roglic and the others in Spain's Sierra Nevada, will race the Tour de Suisse the following week.

FloBikes will air both of the races live and on demand for our subscribers, making for a solid block of race action as an aperitif for Le Tour in July.

Beyond Roglic, overall contenders include Enric Mas (Movistar), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Ben O'Connor (Ag2r-Citroën), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) and US star Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).

American Matteo Jorgenson will also be on the list for Movistar and Mas as he builds for a debut in the Tour de France. sprinters Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco), Laporte, Ethan Hayter and others will eye stages 5 and 6, while the likes of Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) and Dennis, and of course van Aert and Roglic, should battle for the stage 4 time trial victory.