With all due respect to the sprinters, puncheurs and stage hunters, the Critérium du Dauphiné as a whole is a race defined by its general classification, even though a win here is more often than not considered a stepping stone to bigger things; of all the week-long stage races, no one starts a season targeting the Dauphiné without finishing the sentence with a far greater goal: the Tour de France.
The 2025 edition has boasted one of the best starting lineups in recent memory, with the whole 2024 Tour podium facing each other for the first time since last July, and a host of other names to draw the cycling world's attention towards southeast France. At the end of eight days of racing, Tadej Pogačar has won three stages, the green points jersey, and taken overall victory by 59 seconds over Jonas Vingegaard, but there's a lot more story to tell.
Dauphiné stage winners:
- Tadej Pogačar
- Jonathan Milan
- Iván Romeo
- (ITT) Remco Evenepoel
- Jake Stewart
- Tadej Pogačar
- Tadej Pogačar
- Lenny Martinez
[race_result id=15 stage_id=86659 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]
Now for the big question(s): what have we learned about the upcoming Tour de France from the Dauphiné? Is Pogačar's fourth victory a foregone conclusion? Does Vingegaard have enough time to level up before the Grand Départ? Can Evenepoel realistically target anything higher than third?
Heir apparent
Without even including a name in the subheader, you already know to whom this section refers. Three-time Tour de France winner Pogačar has taken a different approach to this year's Grande Boucle, including all four Monuments of the season thus far, winning two and podiuming the others, then taking a six-week break before heading to only his second-ever Dauphiné.
We've got used to putting up with the Tour's top favourites avoiding one another in recent years, but in 2025, the Dauphiné has actually done as advertised: the ASO-run stage race has almost literally set the stage for the Tour, and run a dress rehearsal.
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