Departure place Aurillac is located in the southwest tip of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is a first for the town in the foothills of the Cantal Mountains.
The 1st stage is a hilly test with five intermediate ascents, while the finale is played out on a local circuit with two climbs up the Côte de la Route des Crêtes. The summit is crested 18 kilometres before the finishing line.
Mauriac hosts the start of the 2nd stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, which travels on the slopes of the Auvergne region to Craponne-sur-Arzon. The sprinters should come to the fore on the 3rd day. The finale is a fast man’s dream with a 5 kilometre long straight to the line in Riom.
The Critérium du Dauphiné serves an individual time trial as its 4th stage. The distance and route profile resemble the ITT on the upcoming Tour de France, so it will be a perfect test. At 26.1 kilometres, the course is far from flat, but not mountainous either.
The sprinters are given another chance to shine in Voiron on stage 5 before GC riders are going to take the reins in the last three days. At 229 kilometres, the 6th stage serves the longest race of the week. At the end of a hilly day with a lot of vertical metres – mostly crammed together inside the last 150 kilometres – the finale is a tricky downhill to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne.
Supposedly, stage 7 will be a dramatic race. At 133 kilometres, the route takes in 4,150 metres of elevation gain. The final haul up is the Prapoutel-Les-Sept-Laux, which is a fairly unknown climb of 19 kilometres long.
The last stage is even shorter than the previous. The 113.5 kilometres route includes six intermediate climbs before a summit finish on Swiss soil. The final verdict of the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné is at the end of a rolling uphill section in Champéry.
Critérium du Dauphiné 2019: route, profiles, more
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