Chris Froome will line up at the Criterium du Dauphine on Sunday not only looking to regain the title but also to find the form that will allow him to beat Alberto Contador at July’s Tour de France.
Two years ago, Kenyan-born Froome was the man to beat. He won the Dauphine in June before adding the Tour title a month later.
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Last year many were expecting Froome to again be imperious but after injury and illness, his season really began to unravel at the Dauphine. He led the race from the opening stage time-trial until the penultimate stage seven saw him lose the lead to Contador before he cracked badly on the final day’s gruelling mountain stage – although he was hampered by the effects of a crash on stage six.
He turned up at the Grand Boucle short of form and three crashes over two successive days in the first week saw him leave the race with a broken wrist.
This year his preparation has been slightly different as he raced, and won, the Vuelta a Andalucia rather than going to the Tour of Oman earlier in the year.
The Criterium du #Dauphine starts this Sunday and we can’t wait to go racing. Stand by for our @TeamSky squad… pic.twitter.com/fQt7bJfqKJ
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) June 3, 2015
However, he was surprisingly beaten into third at the Tour de Romandie last month after a poor final time-trial.
Nonetheless, he will still be one of the favourites in July, alongside last year’s champion Vincenzo Nibali, new Giro d’Italia laureate Contador and Colombia’s Nairo Quintana.
Contador won’t be racing the Dauphine as he rests following his Giro success. Like Quintana, his final Tour warm-up will be at the Route du Sud from June 18-21.
“He is the benchmark, the guy to beat,” said Froome of Contador. “I think when it does come to the Grand Tours, both of us want it to be a good race.
“We want to be able to take each other on and for one of us at the end to be able to say, ‘we were better.’”
Nibali will be on the start line and, like Froome, he has beentraining in Tenerife recently on the Teide volcano where Tour hopefuls gain altitude exposure.
Froome has been highly critical in the past of the lack of out-of-competition drug testing on the volcano but he said this time the testers were out in force.
Sunday’s first stage is a 132km hilly stage from Ugine to Albertville with the race finishing next Sunday.
