The Critérium du Dauphiné is often billed as a mini Tour de France. Featuring some of the roads and climbs of the three-week race, so the thinking goes, it is meant to give an indication of who the major players are going to be in July.
For certain editions that may well have been true, but it does depend on who is on the start line and how the route is laid out. This 76th edition looked on paper to be a constant slog over undulating terrain until the final weekend when it became properly mountainous, with a midweek time trial there to establish some kind of GC order for the climbers.
