Criterium du Dauphine 2024 - the route: Long individual time trial and three monsters at the end
Sebastian Lindner
· 03.06.2024
Criterium du Dauphine 2024: The most important facts in brief
- Date: 2-9 June, 8 stages
- Distance~ 1200 kilometres
- StartSaint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, Goal: Plateau des Glières
- Profile: Five mountain finishes, two hilly stages, one time trial
- UCI category: World Tour
- Organiser: A.S.O.
- Premiere: 1947, 76th edition
- Canyon, Dare, Trek, Pinarello and Wilier: New road bikes at the Dauphine
It is not the tour of the great, mythical mountains. Nor one of the historic ones. Nevertheless, the 2024 Tour of the Dauphine will be one of the toughest in recent years. Only three of the eight stages will not end with a real mountain finish. One of them is a time trial, the longest for more than ten years.
Return of Roglic and Evenepoel after Basque Country crash
It will therefore be a real endurance test for the majority of the favourites for the Tour. With Primoz Roglic, who will have his most important helpers in Aleksandr Vlasov and Jai Hindley, the captain of Bora-Hansgrohe is returning to the race after his heavy crash at the Tour of the Basque Country, as is Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step), who also crashed heavily there. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), the third star, who was hit even harder than the other two in the Basque Country, will not be able to defend his title from last year. It is still not certain whether he will be able to start at the Tour de France.
Criterium du Dauphine 2024 - the route at a glance
Almost 1200 kilometres await on the eight days of the race. In total, there are around 22,000 metres of altitude to overcome. Apart from the time trial, none of the stages are under 2,000 metres, so the favourites in the overall standings can basically never lift their legs.
Stage 1 | Sunday, 2 June 2024 | Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule - Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule | 172.5 kilometres
Most likely at the start around Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule in the Allier department, where the Dauphine starts for the first time in its history. There aren't really any major difficulties there, but on the final lap, which has to be completed twice, an uncategorised but perhaps not entirely harmless climb awaits not far from the finish, after which it's almost all downhill. If you're on a roll here, you could be seconds behind. Normally, however, it is a day for the sprinters.
Stage 2 | Monday, 3 June 2024 | Gannat - Col de la Loge | 142 kilometres
Unlike the second section. Here, too, there are no monster mountains in themselves. However, apart from a small plateau in the middle, the last 25 kilometres are all uphill. It goes up to the Col de la Loge. The approach to the finale is relatively short, but not easy with a category 2 climb.
Stage 3 | Tuesday, 4 June 2024 | Celles-sur-Durolle - Les Estables | 181.7 kilometres
Stage 3, second mountain finish. A total of five mountain classifications await, but it won't be more difficult than category 2. Nevertheless, there are again almost 20 kilometres of climbing in one go on the schedule, but only the last two are categorised and therefore only slightly rated. The finish is in the small mountain village of Les Estables. Up to this point, the race remains in the Massif Central.
Stage 4 | Wednesday, 5 June 2024 | Saint-Germain-Laval - Neulise | 34.4 kilometres (individual time trial)
Contre-la-montre is what the French call a time trial. The battle against the clock on day 4 between Saint-Germain-Laval and Neulise is 34.4 kilometres long - making it the longest since 2012, when a whopping 53 kilometres had to be completed in Bourg-en-Bresse. But even on the 2024 variant, which crosses the Loire once, there can be big time gaps here, as the second part in particular is also very uphill. There are a total of 445 metres of ascent here. It will be a real test of form.
Stage 5 | Thursday, 6 June 2024 | Amplepuis - Saint-Priest | 167 kilometres
In Tour-speak, it would be a real transition stage, as the route slowly heads towards the Alps from the Massif Central on stage 5. But before it really starts to climb, the day ends in Saint-Priest, a suburb of Lyon. Originally, the stage broke the 200-kilometre mark. One loop at the beginning was cancelled from the plan, otherwise everything remained the same. The biggest difficulty here is a 2nd category climb shortly after the halfway point of the race. However, as the calm before the storm should prevail on this day, the sprinters should be able to make their move here again, provided a breakaway group doesn't rob them of the chance of a bunch sprint.
Stage 6 | Friday, 7 June 2024 | Hauterives - Le Collet d'Allevard | 174.1 kilometres
From now on, there's no more pardon. Three tough finishes await on the last three stages. On the sixth day, the route leads up to the Le Collet d'Allevard ski resort - via an HC climb that is eleven kilometres long and has an average gradient of 8.1 per cent. This directly compensates for the relatively easy approach, apart from the Col du Granier. The final climb up to an altitude of 1385 metres is at least relatively rhythmic. There are no major fluctuations in the gradient percentage. Only the last 100 metres are significantly flatter at 4.5 per cent. Just right for a sprint to the finish.
Stage 7 | Saturday, 8 June 2024 | Albertville - Samoëns | 155.3 kilometres
The Col des Saisies, the Col des Aravis, the Col de la Colombiere and the Cote d'Araches - they all form the preliminary programme for the final climb to the Alpine village of Samoens. The quartet is made up of the surprisingly first 1st category climbs of this tour. Compared to the monster climb that awaits, however, they are still manageable. Because ten kilometres with a gradient of more than nine per cent await up to Samoens. In total, there are more than 4,200 metres of climbing - making stage 7 the undisputed queen stage of the Criterium du Dauphine 2024.
After a relaxed start, the percentages on the way up to 1634 metres above sea level remain in double figures until kilometre 6 of the ascent, and only the last section remains below eight percent again.
Stage 8 | Sunday, 9 June 2024 | Thônes - Plateau des Glières | 160.6 kilometres
On the final day, three more one-metre climbs await, including the last climb of the tour. It ends on the Plateau des Glieres with another almost ten kilometres at seven per cent. The last two and a half kilometres are fairly flat again and could either end in a triumphant ride or a final haggle for seconds. The biggest challenge of stage 8, however, is the climb to Mont Saleve, which is another three kilometres longer with a similar average gradient. It is also not exactly easy to ride with gradients of around four to eleven per cent. Accordingly, the preliminary decision for the day's and the stage win could be made here.
Criterium du Dauphine 2024: TV broadcast and live stream
The 2024 Tour of the Dauphine can only be seen on TV in Germany from stage 4 on Eurosport 2. However, Discovery Plus and Eurosport will broadcast the live stream from the start. The broadcast times of the individual stages at a glance:
- Stage 1: Stream 15 - 17 h
- Stage 2: Stream 15:10 - 17:10
- Stage 3: Stream 15:10 - 17:10
- Stage 4: Stream and TV 15:10 - 17:10
- Stage 5: Stream and TV 12:45 - 14:45
- Stage 6: Stream and TV 15:25 - 17:25
- Stage 7: Stream and TV 13:05 - 15:05
- Stage 8: Stream and TV 13:05 - 15:05
