Alpe d'Huez & The Criterium du Dauphine 2017

The iconic race celebrates its 70th anniversary this June (Sunday 4th to Sunday 11th) and has long been the final warm-up, and fine tuning, race for the main players who are targeting success in Le Tour de France in July.

As far back as Bernard Hinualt in 1979 through to Miguel Indurain in 1995, Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and most recently Chris Froome in 2013, 2015 and 2016, have all won the prestigious “Dauphine” en-route to the ultimate prize of Tour de France success a month later.

The race was also won in 2002 and 2003 by Lance Armstrong en-route to success in the tour, but these results were subsequently voided in all too unsavoury circumstances. Chris Froome will no doubt be hoping for more success this year come June and July.

Sandwiched in between the first 2 grand tours of the year, the Giro d’Italia (5th to 28th May) and the Tour de France (1st to 23rd July) the race provides riders with an 8 day “mini” Tour de France, making it the perfect warm-up.

So far it has been confirmed that the 70th edition of the Dauphine will start with a short time trial in Saint Etienne, before the second stage starts in Saint Chamond. It is widely rumoured that the 7th and Queen stage on Saturday 10th June will finish atop the famous climb up to Alpe d’Huez. 14 gruelling kilometres from Bourg d’Oisans and featuring the famous 21 bends, this stage will almost certainly define the general classification.

With the exception of Nairo Quintana who is targeting success in the giro and the tour, most of the main Tour de France hopefuls will be competing to pull on the yellow jersey here on Saturday 11th June. Don’t be surprised to see Chris Froome (Team Sky), Ritchie Porte (BMC) and local favourite Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) slug it out on the 21 bends. Chambery based AG2R La Mondiale would love to taste success in their own backyard.

The Dauphine last finished in resort back in 2010 when Janez Brajkovic battled it out with Alberto Contador, with Contador taking victory on the day, whilst Brajkovic claimed the overall GC.

The race visited Alpe d’Huez in 2013 as a warm-up for the famous “double d’huez” day in the 2013 Tour de France. On that day the race continued through resort, down the Sarenne gorge on the way to Superdevoluy, where Samuel Sanchez took stage honours, whilst Chris Froome claimed overall victory in the race. Other famous winners of the race include Jacques Anquetil, Alejandro Valverde, Greg LeMond all the back to the first winner in 1947, Poland’s Edouard Klabinski.

If you get chance to watch the race here in resort I can speak from personal experience that it’s a great opportunity to get up close to riders, much closer than at the Tour de France. It’s easy to get pictures with riders and get autographs as the whole race is far more relaxed than the Tour, most will happily chat and pose for photos. My son, Harrison, managed to get the autographs of the entire Team Sky squad outside their hotel in resort and also get a picture with two-time race winner (2008 and 2009) Alejandro Valverde inside the Movistar team hotel.