The 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné will pay homage to local French star Romain Bardet (Team Picnic PostNL) with a stage 3 start in his home town of Brioude in the last race of his road career.
A winner last year of the opening stage of the Tour de France, Bardet, 34, is set to retire from road racing and switch to gravel after taking part in the Dauphiné this June. He won a stage of the Dauphiné back in 2015 and finished runner-up to Chris Froome in 2016 in the same event. The Picnic-PostNL racer will receive a special recognition in front of a home crowd on stage 3 of the 2025 edition.
Throughout its typically demanding eight-day course, which runs from June 8-15, this year's Critérium du Dauphiné will act as a key pre-Tour de France test for favourites Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) as well as Belgian star Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
Defending champion Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) will almost certainly not take part, as he will be racing the Giro d'Italia, the three-week Grand Tour ending June 1.
The 2025 route is notably different to the 2024 Critérium du Dauphiné in its first half. The contrasts start with the much punchier opening leg from Domerat to Monluçon, featuring no less than seven category 4 climbs in the last 80 kilometres.
There is no repeat of the 2024 back-to-back category 3 summit finishes on stage 2 and stage 3, either. Instead late minor climbs on the run-ins to Issoire and Charantonnay will likely spark a battle between the sprinters' teams - who will also be troubled by a very steep, short ramp in the closing kilometres of stage 3 - and the breakaway specialists.
The biggest change for the GC riders, though, is the traditional stage 4 individual time trial. This is just 17.7 kilometres long, compared to the much more arduous 34-kilometre course in 2024. That shorter distance will likely keep all the favourites closer together on GC for the crunch mountain stages which follow.
After an unusual summit finish consisting of back-to-back catetory 2 ascents of Domancy and Combloux in the northern edge of the Alps, the sort-out process begins on stage 6, stage 7 and is by far the toughest of the entire race.
Three Alpine hors category climbs - the Croix-de-Fer, the Madeleine and the final ascent to the little-known Valmeinier - are all packed into just 132 kilometres making for a ferociously difficult day. The Dauphine's love of a sting in a tail is not neglected, either, on the final day. Another mountain trek across six categorized ascents that culminate in the final category 1 climb to the Mont Cenis Plateau, and will decide the overall winner of France's third-biggest stage race.
Race organisers ASO also announced the teams that are due to take part in the 77th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné. The 18 WorldTour squads will race alongside Israel-Premier Tech, the one ProTeam gaining an automatic qualification after Lotto turned down their invite. The three other squads present will be TotalEnergies, Julian Alaphilippe's Tudor Pro squad and Norwegian outfit Uno-X Mobility.
Stage 1: Domérat - Montluçon, 189.2km
Sunday, June 8, 2025 - Stage 1 from Domerat to Montlučon, 189.2km (Image credit: ASO)
Will the sprinters try and control this stage? Given so many short, explosive climbs will be make it hard to explode, this looks made for a gutsy late attack by a breakaway specialist like Julian Alaphilippe or...Tadej Pogačar?
Km 107.9: Cat.4 Côte de Sainte-Thérence
Km 114: Cat.4 Côte d'Argenty
Km 125.5: Cat.4 Côte de Buffon
Km 130: Montlučon - Sprint
Km 137.8: Cat.4 Côte de Domérat
Km 155.1: Cat.4 Côte de Buffon
Km 167.4: Cat.4 Côte de Domérat
Km 184.7: Cat.4 Côte de Buffon
Stage 2: Premilhat - Issoire, 204.6km
Monday, June 9, 2025 - Stage 2 from Premilhat to Issoire, 204.6km (Image credit: ASO)
A lumpy beginning for the breakaways, but the flattish finale and scant opportunities - as always - for the fastmen in the 2025 Dauphiné will likely make this a first bunch sprint.
Km 33.4: Cat.4 Côte de la Font Nanaud
Km 50.5: Cat.4 Côte de Saint-Priest-les-Champs
Km 61.1: Cat.3 Côte des Rivauds
Km 71.8: Cat.3 Côte de Saint-Jacques d'Ambur
Km 102: Sprint - Olby
Km 147.1: Cat.2 Côte de Château de Buron
Km 186.7: Cat.4: Côte de Nonette
Stage 3: Brioude - Charantonnay 202.8km
Tuesday, June 10, 2025 - Stage 3 from Brioude to Charantonnay 202.8km (Image credit: ASO)
Another sprinters v. breakaway fest, with the very early climbs and steep ramp in the closing kilometres likely favouring those chancing their arm from distance - and perhaps a late test by a GC contender.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025 - Stage 4 from Charmes-sur-Rhône - Saint-Péray (ITT) 17.7km (Image credit: ASO)
A short, quite hilly time trial, that won't create major differences on GC, so quite a change from the usual Dauphiné mid-week contre-la-montre.
Stage 5: Saint-Priest - Mâcon 182.6km
Thursday, June 12, 2025 - Stage 5 from Saint-Priest to Mâcon 182.6km (Image credit: ASO)
A third and final chance for the sprinters here as the GC men keep their powder dry for the three hilly stages to come.
Km 91: Cat.4 Côte-de-Saint-Amour
Km 103: Cat.3: Col de Fontmartin
Km 120.6: Cat.4: Col du Boubon
Km 142.7: Sprint - Col du Bois Clair
Km 155.8: Cat.4 Côte des Quatre Vents
Stage 6: Valserhône - Combloux 139.1km
Friday, June 13, 2025 - Stage 6 from Valserhone to Combloux 139.1km (Image credit: ASO)
The first key mountain stage, and even if it's nowhere near as hard as the weekend, the final Cat.2 combination will surely reduce the bunch to a group of five or ten finisher at most.
Saturday June 14, 2025 - Stage 7 from Grand-Aigueblanche - Valmeinier 1800 132.1km (Image credit: ASO)
63.5 kilometres of climbing in a 132.1km stage; 3 hors categorie ascents, two of them peaking out at more than 2,000 metres above sea level and the last a summit finish; barely a metre of flat throughout. Could it be anything else than a Critérium du Dauphiné queen stage?
Km 25.8: HC climb: Col de la Madeleine
Km 70.8: HC climb: Col de la Croix de Fer
Km 115.2: Sprint - Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne
Km 132.1: HC climb: Col de Valmeinier
Stage 8: Val-D'Arc - Plateau du Mont Cenis 133.8km
Sunday June 15, 2025 - Stage 8 from Val-D'Arc - Plateau du Mont-Cenis 133.8km (Image credit: Getty Images)
The battle for overall victory in the 2024 Critérium du Dauphine went down the wire as race leader Roglič struggled on the final ascent - and this time around on stage 8, there's room enough aplenty for a rival to challenge the overall leader again. That final climb to Mont-Centis could yet see the sparks fly again just like on the last climb of 2023. But with so many tough little ascents, technical downhills and tired legs all round in 2025 after a week's hard racing, ambushes could easily come earlier.
Km 4.7: Cat.3 Côte d'Aiton
Km 15.3: Cat.2 Côte de Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières
Km 67.2: Cat.1 Col de Beaune
Km 75.8: Sprint - Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne
Km 88.4: Cat.3 Côte-de-Saint-André
Km 101.6: Cat.2 Côte d'Aussois
Km 128.7: Cat.1 Col du Mont-Cenis
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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