Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, formerly the Critérium du Dauphiné, is a week-long WorldTour cycling stage race held each June in southeastern France, with its decisive stages in the mountains, most often the Alps. It is one of the two main preparation races before the Tour de France, drawing Grand Tour contenders and climbers to its high-mountain stages.

The Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the eight-day June stage race that was called the Critérium du Dauphiné until 2026. The newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré started it in 1947, and it is raced in the mountains of southeastern France the month before the Tour de France. Five riders share the record of three wins.

How the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré began in 1947

The newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré first appeared on September 7, 1945, under the headline “The free newspaper of the free men.” It had seven founders, all of whom had fought in the resistance. One of them, Georges Cazeneuve, created the race. The first Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ran from June 12 to 16, 1947, from Grenoble to Grenoble through Vienne, Annecy, Geneva and Annemasse, before the first Tour de France held after the war. Édouard Klabinski won it.

Émile Baffert won one of the stages alone. On November 11, 1943, he had joined a public protest against the German occupation of Grenoble. He was arrested and put on a train to a prison camp in February 1944 with another cyclist, Bernard Gauthier, and the two jumped off before it reached Germany. The race has kept that history in its routes, with regular visits to resistance sites such as the Vercors.

How the Dauphiné Libéré became the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Thierry Cazeneuve, the founder’s nephew, organized the race for 21 years. In 2010 the Tour de France organizer ASO took it over, and the name was shortened to Critérium du Dauphiné. The 2019 edition started in Aurillac, away from the race’s home in the Alps.

In 2026 the race became the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, named for the region that hosts and supports it. That edition, the 78th, started in Vizille, near Grenoble, and went west to Le Puy-en-Velay and a team time trial at Perreux. It then returned to the mountains for summit finishes at Crest-Voland, the Grand Colombier and the Plateau de Solaison.

Hinault, Froome and the Dauphiné’s three-time winners

Nobody has won the race four times, and five riders have won it three times. Nello Lauredi did it first, in 1950, 1951 and 1954. Luis Ocaña won in 1970, 1972 and 1973, and Bernard Hinault in 1977, 1979 and 1981. Charly Mottet’s three wins came in 1987, 1989 and 1992. Chris Froome won in 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Jacques Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor, Bernard Thévenet and Miguel Indurain each won twice. So did Primož Roglič, in 2022 and 2024.

Dauphiné winners who won the Tour de France the same year

The race packs the elements of the Tour into one week, and it comes a month earlier. When the UCI counted in 2019, the winners of the previous 13 Tours had all ridden the Dauphiné the month before, except Andy Schleck in 2010. Bradley Wiggins won both races in 2012. Froome won the Tour in each of his three Dauphiné years, and Geraint Thomas followed in 2018.

Jonas Vingegaard did the same in 2023. Tadej Pogačar had not ridden the Dauphiné since 2020 when he came back in 2025 and won it for the first time, by 59 seconds from Vingegaard. He won the Tour the next month.

Andrew Talansky overturns Contador on the last day in 2014

Froome led the 2014 race from the first day and lost the jersey to Alberto Contador on the second-to-last. Andrew Talansky started the final stage, to Courchevel, in third place, 39 seconds behind Contador. He got into a breakaway of 23 riders that formed after the first climb. Its lead reached 3 minutes 20 seconds.

Contador rode most of the stage without teammates, and his late attack was not enough. Mikel Nieve won the stage and Talansky was fourth. He won the race by 27 seconds from Contador, and Froome dropped out of the first ten.

Roglič’s eight seconds in 2024

Roglič came to the 2024 race nine weeks after he was injured in a crash at Itzulia Basque Country. He led into the final stage, 160.6 kilometers from Thônes to the Plateau des Glières. Carlos Rodríguez and Matteo Jorgenson rode away from him in the last five kilometers, with Derek Gee a few seconds behind them. Rodríguez won the stage. Roglič kept the yellow jersey by eight seconds from Jorgenson, and Gee was third at 36 seconds.

Del Toro wins on the Plateau de Solaison in 2026

The Plateau de Solaison had already changed the result once. In 2017 Richie Porte led on the last morning, and Jakob Fuglsang took the race from him on the climb by 10 seconds, the same as the time bonus for the stage winner. In 2022 Vingegaard won the stage there while his teammate Roglič won the race. The climb is about 11 kilometers long at an average of 9.1 percent.

In 2026 it ended the first edition under the new name, and Isaac del Toro started the day third, 49 seconds behind the 21-year-old Australian Luke Tuckwell. He attacked 9 kilometers from the top and finished alone, more than a minute ahead. It was his second stage win in two days, and he won the race by 54 seconds from Tuckwell. Juan Ayuso was third at 1 minute 17 seconds.

This race has long been the clearest mountain-stage gauge before the Tour de France. Over eight days it compresses Alpine climbing, a time trial, and recovery stress into a shorter test that rewards riders who can hold form across repeated summit efforts rather than one decisive afternoon. That balance gives the race its own prestige: it attracts Grand Tour leaders, but it is not only a rehearsal. Winning here still means mastering a serious stage race in its own right.