Pogacar, Vingegaard and the ultimate dress rehearsal – 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné preview

There are only so many ways up and down Sierra Nevada, and it was inevitable that Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar’s paths would cross when they were both cloistered there for a training camp last month.

United by the shared sacrifices of preparing for the Tour de France but divided by the common goal of trying to win it, the two men exchanged only the most perfunctory of greetings as they set about their business with their Team Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates, 2,000m above sea level.

“I mean, we’ve been riding in the opposite direction a few times, but we haven’t really been speaking,” Vingegaard told reporters in a video call from the mountaintop last month. “It could be nice to speak with him here, but it hasn’t really been possible to do yet.”

Pogačar and Vingegaard have found it less straightforward to encounter one another in bike races in recent years, mind. Outside of the Tour, the pair haven’t met at a race since Paris-Nice over two years ago, but that will change next week, when both men line up at the Critérium du Dauphiné for their final test ahead of the main event.

The Dauphiné has always been billed as the dress rehearsal for the Tour de France, but it’s been some time since the favourites for the main event have clashed in the Alps in June. Indeed, the last time the Dauphiné boasted a full slate of Tour contenders came in the pandemic-condensed season of 2020, and that was in a delayed and shortened edition of the race.

Given the scarcity of their meetings and their habitual dominance in July, then, the clash between Vingegaard and Pogačar eclipses all other storylines at this Dauphiné, despite the presence of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and the retiring Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL). 

Pogačar has run through his repertoire early and often in 2025, as ever, winning the UAE Tour, Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège during an all-action Spring that also saw him claim podium spots at Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race.

There is an argument, mind, that Pogačar’s predilection for one-day racing in the Spring is not conducive to building a base for the Tour, with Alberto Contador among those to float the idea. The Dauphiné, Pogačar’s first stage race since February, gives the Slovenian a chance to refute that notion while testing his form for July.

Vingegaard, meanwhile, arrives at the Dauphiné with some more obvious question marks over his condition given the crash that ruined his early season. The Dane raced and won the Volta ao Algarve in February, albeit without crushing the opposition like he had done at O Gran Camiño in years past, but the concussion sustained in his crash at Paris-Nice ruled him out of the Volta a Catalunya, and he opted against replacing the race on his schedule. 

Then again, Vingegaard has shown before that he doesn’t need a steady diet of racing miles to reach peak condition or something like it. If Pogačar is cycling’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, bounding from one outlandish challenge to the next, Vingegaard’s approach is more like that of Josh Kerr, methodically building towards one main event in the summer. 

Each approach has shown itself to be as valid as the other when it comes to claiming yellow in July, and that contrast is a large part of what makes their duel so intriguing. 

When Pogačar lost out on the Tour in 2022 and 2023, one wondered if he had developed something of a complex when it came to racing against Vingegaard in the white heat of July. His dominance in 2024 gave lie to that notion, though Vingegaard’s truncated preparation after his life-threatening crash gives the Dane reason to believe this time out.

The hope in 2025 is that each man will reach the Tour fully fit and healthy for the fifth instalment of their annual summit meeting. With that in mind, every pedal stroke next week will be parsed for pointers for the month of July, and it’s tempting to bill the Dauphiné as an unofficial prologue to the Tour. 

Each approach has shown itself to be as valid as the other when it comes to claiming yellow in July, and that contrast is a large part of what makes their duel so intriguing. 

When Pogačar lost out on the Tour in 2022 and 2023, one wondered if he had developed something of a complex when it came to racing against Vingegaard in the white heat of July. His dominance in 2024 gave lie to that notion, though Vingegaard’s truncated preparation after his life-threatening crash gives the Dane reason to believe this time out.

The hope in 2025 is that each man will reach the Tour fully fit and healthy for the fifth instalment of their annual summit meeting. With that in mind, every pedal stroke next week will be parsed for pointers for the month of July, and it’s tempting to bill the Dauphiné as an unofficial prologue to the Tour. 

The shadow boxing seen in Dauphinés of yesteryear doesn’t seem likely to apply here. Expect hefty blows to be delivered, with Pogačar and Vingegaard each backed by the spine of their Tour teams.

Vingegaard and Pogačar will start the Tour on the same time in Lille on July 5, of course, but the outcome of this Dauphiné will surely tip the scales one way or another from a psychological standpoint. Then again, maybe not. After all, Pogačar delivered a sound beating to Vingegaard at the 2023 Paris-Nice only for the Dane to have his number in July. 

The beauty of this latest Pogačar-Vingegaard duel, at least, is that there won’t be the usual long wait for the rematch.

It’s not all about Pogačar and Vingegaard at the Dauphiné, of course. As ever, a host of Tour men have chosen the eight-stage race as their final tune-up for July, and there will be much interest in how Evenepoel fares here. 

Twelve months ago, on the back of his crash at Itzulia Basque Country, Evenepoel was short of his best and still shy of his racing weight at the Dauphiné, but he won the time trial and then used the mountain stages as a very public training camp. Evenepoel might not be ready to live with Pogačar and Vingegaard here after his late start to 2025, but he will look for improvement on his 5th place finish at the Tour de Romandie a month ago.

Matteo Jorgenson, second a year ago, lines up alongside Vingegaard in a strong Team Visma | Lease a Bike squad and the American will surely enjoy more freedom at the Dauphiné than he will in July. Pogačar, by contrast, is the only GC option for UAE Team Emirates, who will dispatch João Almeida to the Tour de Suisse.

Mattias Skjelmose and Tao Geoghegan Hart lead the line for the team of the moment Lidl-Trek, while Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-Alula) and Enric Mas (Movistar) are among the GC riders building towards the Tour.

In his final race as a pro, Bardet will seek a farewell victory on home roads, while Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) will also look to shine. There will be local interest from some young talent too, with Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon-AG2R) both lining up.

A high-octane race awaits, as Vincenzo Nibali pointed out to BiciPro this week. “It often happens that they go harder at the Dauphiné than at the Tour,” Nibali said, noting that at least part of the bunch is still vying to earn selection for July. “You start to see some very important numbers on your powermeter…”

The 2025 Dauphiné follows a familiar template, with a hilly start to the race, a midweek time trial and then a troika of mountain stages to finish things off. The ideal Tour de France tune-up, in other words.

There could be frissons among the GC men on the opening day, with the short and sharp Côte de Buffon (700m at 8%) coming just before the finish in Montluçon. Two rugged days to Issoire and Charantonnay follow, though the less complicated run-ins will give the fast men a better chance of holding on.

The flat and fast time trial to Saint-Péray on stage 4 is just 17km in length, but while that should limit the gaps, Evenepoel will look to strike a blow here. After some hilly but relatively biddable terrain on the road to Maçon on stage 5, the race begins to climb in earnest for the final three days.

The category 1 Côte de Mont-Saxonnex (5.4km at 8.7%) is ostensibly the toughest climb on stage 6, but the uphill finale is where it will be decided, with the Côte de Domancy (2.4km at 8.6%) leading directly onto the Côte de la Cry (2.7km at 8.2%) for the final haul to Combloux. Vingegaard delivered a decisive blow to Pogačar in the time trial there on the 2023 Tour, and the pair will surely be to the fore again here.

Stage 7 is a bona fide mountain day, with three hors catégorie climbs crammed into 130km. The mighty Col de la Madeleine (24.6km at 6.2%) comes immediately after the start in Grand-Aigueblanche, and it’s followed by the Col de la Croix de Fer (22.4km at 6.9%) and then a summit finish at Valmeinier 1800 (16.5km at 6.7%).

Another short but explosive stage brings the curtain down on proceedings, with six climbs on the agenda, including the Col de Beaune and the sharp ascent to Mont Cenis (9.6km at 6.9%) in the finale. A 5km stretch of plateau brings riders from the summit to the finish. From there, we’ll have a better view of the lie of the land ahead of July.