A star-studded lineup heads to France this weekend for the start of the Critérium du Dauphiné. Chris Froome (Team Ineos), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) are among the starters, but there are a raft of other riders to watch out for. Cyclingnews takes a look at five of the most interesting candidates to keep an eye on.
- Chris Froome leads Team Ineos at Critérium du Dauphiné
- Bardet leads AG2R into clash with Froome and Quintana
- Tom Dumoulin set for Critérium du Dauphiné return
- How to watch the Critérium du Dauphiné
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)
Until this point, Wout Van Aert’s 2019 focus has been limited to the one-day arena, but the Critérium du Dauphiné provides a departure from this year’s script and the 24-year-old’s first ticket to a WorldTour stage race since joining Jumbo-Visma.
His only other venture at this level of stage racing came at the 2017 BinckBank Tour, although his stage racing palmares includes the overall win in last year’s Tour of Denmark. The Dauphiné offers a different test, with the young Belgian talent given the chance to test himself against a magnum of stage racing specialists. With Steven Kruijswijk in the team, the onus will be on supporting a strong GC challenge but there are several stages that could tempt cameo performances out of Van Aert. He’s certainly been living the part, training with the stage racing core at altitude in recent times.
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Dauphiné experience: None, and this is his first WorldTour stage race since 2017. Gulp!
Team role: Gain experience, fight for a stage win, and support the GC ambitions.
Nairo Quintana (Movistar)
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ)
Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis)
Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic)
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/criterium-du-dauphine-5-riders-to-watch
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