Paris (AFP)

With Geraint Thomas as leader, the Ineos team risks playing the steamroller in the Critérium du Dauphiné which begins on Sunday in Auvergne and culminates at the end of the week in the Alps.

Thomas is resuming his marks, he who had won the alpine event hands down in 2018 a few weeks before winning the Tour de France.

With the support of a team which is gaining momentum to challenge the Slovenians Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic in the Grande Boucle, absent next week as well as Julian Alaphilippe.

Ineos delegates around its Welsh leader part of the probable workforce of the next Tour de France (Geoghegan Hart, Kwiatkowski, Porte, van Baarle). Enough to return to victory in a race that the British team won six times between 2011 and 2018 before having its leaders forced to retire (Froome in 2019, Bernal in 2020).

The course, which includes an individual time trial on Wednesday - however limited to 16 km - and a hard but rolling summit finish on Saturday in La Plagne, matches the profile and habits of the most powerful team. of the peloton.

Subject to negotiating well the last stage, short and muscular, which does not tolerate any weakness, since everything can still change in Joux-Plane, the last pass only 17 kilometers from the finish in the resort of Les Gets (Haute-Savoie ).

- Long efforts in race mode -

The opposition?

It is to be found on the side of Colombians Miguel Angel Lopez and Nairo Quintana, of David Gaudu and Guillaume Martin, who carry most of the French hopes, and climbers of the Jumbo team (Kuss, Kruijswijk, Vingegaard) in the absence of Roglic who took the risk of not running until the start of the Tour on June 26 in Brest.

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"The Dauphiné allows us to refine our condition in race mode and we can measure what we still have to work on", notes Quintana, whose only stage success in the event dates from its first participation, the year of its debut. professionals (2012).

"The course is difficult, it will allow me to produce long efforts which are essential before a big lap", observes for his part Gaudu.

Le Breton, promoted to leader of Groupama-FDJ, also wants to calm expectations after his recent fall in training, "a flight hovered at 70 per hour": "I do not consider myself among the favorites. But I hope have the right feelings to compete with the best. "

This year, the Dauphiné resumes its traditional format, ten months after an ultra-condensed edition in five days which had turned to the advantage of the Colombian Daniel Martinez - recruited without delay by Ineos - against Thibaut Pinot, once again all close to putting an end to a series of French failures.

Following the example of the first stage, a circuit around Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme), several stages in the first half of the week are aimed at puncheurs (M. Pedersen, Colbrelli, Van Avermaet, Madouas) or to the attackers (Asgreen, Lutsenko), before the climbers regain their ground in the passes of the Alps.

One month before the climax of the Tour.

© 2021 AFP