In 2026, the Critérium du Dauphiné gets a new name, the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, but it remains the familiar build-up race for the Tour de France in June.
Running from June 7 to 14, the WorldTour stage race includes a team time trial that will help riders prepare for the opening TTT of the Tour de France a few weeks later.
The Grand Colombier was the site of Tadej Pogačar‘s second Tour de France stage win in 2020, where he out-sprinted Primož Roglič for the honours. More recently, it was in the 2023 Tour de France with Michał Kwiatkowski winning the stage and Pogačar gaining a handful of seconds on rival Jonas Vingegaard.
The final climb of the 2026 race, the Plateau de Salaison, has been infrequently used but was last used when Vingegaard won stage 8 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, helping then-teammate Roglič to the overall victory.
Read on for details of the 2026 Critérium du Dauphiné/Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes route.
Stage 1: Vizille – Saint-Ismier, 140.1 km
It’s a tough opening stage for the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with riders heading up and uncategorised climb just 6km into the stage from Ilsère to Saint-Ismier.
The first classified climb, the category 2 Col de l’Arzelier comes less than 40km into the stage, and there are four more scattered throughout the 140.1-kilometre route.
A rather testing Côte de Saint-Jean-le-Vieux with 20km to go and an uphill sprint finish adds to the difficulty of this opening stage.
- Intermediate Sprint – Monestier de Clermont, km 22.3
- Col de l’Arzelier (cat. 2 – 8,6 km at 5,7 %), km. 39.8
- Côte de Seyssins (cat. 3 – 2.6 km at 6 %), km. 72.8
- Côte de Quaix en Chartreuse (cat. 2 – 2,3 km at 9,2 %), km. 94.7
- Col de Vence (cat. 2 – 5,1 km at 6 %), km. 102.5
- Côte de Saint-Jean-le-Vieux…
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