No Pogačar or Vingegaard but Paul Seixas faces test of Tour de France credentials against Del Toro, Ayuso and more – Analysing the contenders at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

The Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes starts this weekend, and if you’re wondering why we’re devoting a lengthy feature to a race you’ve never heard of, well, that’s because this is the new name for the Critérium du Dauphiné.

We’re still adjusting to the situation ourselves, but what’s not being taken away are the eight great stages of racing that provide a platform towards the Tour de France next month.

The start list risked being a little light this year, with Tadej Pogačar opting for the Tour de Suisse, Jonas Vingegaard resting between the Giro and Tour, and Remco Evenepoel resting for the sake of resting.

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However, Paul Seixas’ turbo-rise and recent decision to make his Tour de France debut at 19 have placed the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes at the centre of one of the biggest cycling stories of the season.

Factor in names like Isaac Del Toro, Juan Ayuso, Wout van Aert, and a big-name-only Netcompany Ineos squad, and we have the makings of a brilliant race and a brilliant precursor to the Tour.

Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM)

In the absence of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Paul Seixas very much feels like the gravitational centre of this race. The 19-year-old Frenchman is generating excitement levels barely seen before as he continues his precocious rise towards the top of the sport, with the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes being a key staging post on the path to his debut Tour de France.

Seixas was eighth overall here last year, which was an extraordinary result for an 18-year-old neo-pro. 12 months on, he returns as the pre-race favourite, which is even more extraordinary. This year, Seixas has turbocharged his huge promise to a point where, in the space of just a few months, he has become one of the top few cyclists in the world, across Classics and stage racing.

The Itzulia Basque Country in April was the first stage race victory of his career, and he made it look easy, dispatching a WorldTour field and relegating last year’s revelation Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) to second place at two and a half minutes.

This represents a step up in the quality and depth of the field, so this will be a big test of Seixas and also of his Decathlon CMA CGM team, not least because we have a team time trial, as we do at the Tour. And really, this is all about the Tour. The Dauphiné has always been the leading Tour de France build-up race, and with Seixas, the next week or so will allow us to fill in more of the gaps surrounding that tantalising question of just how much we can expect of him at the Tour.

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

If Pogačar wasn’t his team leader at the Tour, there’d likely be a good deal more excitement surrounding Isaac del Toro at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône Alpes. Seixas is making everyone look slow, but Del Toro had previously held the role of ‘most exciting youngster’ and is still getting better and better.

The 22-year-old Mexican really should have won the Giro last year, but he has looked far more assured this year with consummate WorldTour stage race wins at the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico.

And yet, there are doubts after his last outing at Itzulia. Del Toro crashed out on stage 3, but he’d already been whacked to the tune of nearly three minutes by Seixas’ assaults on the opening two days.

He doesn’t have the same momentum or perhaps ceiling as Seixas, but if he’s back to his best, we could have a brilliant battle on our hands this week. And it will tell us more about what Del Toro might be able to do in his debut Tour de France, where he’ll be a key support rider for Pogačar’s and possibly a GC plan B.

Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek)

If Seixas has taken over the ‘most exciting youngster’ mantle from Del Toro, then Del Toro perhaps inherited it from Juan Ayuso, who himself was dubbed a new Pogačar when he burst onto the scene in 2021.

It feels like Ayuso has been around for ages, but he’s still only 23 and still finding his feet at new team Lidl-Trek, having left Pogačar, Del Toro, and the crowded house that was UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

Ayuso had a strong start to the season, but momentum has been disrupted. He beat Seixas to the crown at the Volta ao Algarve, but crashed out of Paris-Nice and Itzulia Basque Country, with a training crash in between.

Lidl-Trek also have Mattias Skjelmose in the ranks, who can post strong results in week-long races, but Ayuso has the greater talent and, if he can get back into that early groove he was carving at Lidl-Trek, could be aiming pretty high at the Tour de France by the end of this week.

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

The UAE team have something of a wildcard in João Almeida, who was supposed to lead the line at the Giro d'Italia but had to scrap those plans after struggling with illness and fatigue in the early part of the season.

Once the Giro was off the table, thoughts naturally turned towards the Tour de France, and whether the Portuguese rider could sign up alongside Del Toro as a luxury member of Tadej Pogačar's support cast.

Almeida is a proven Grand Tour podium finisher and one of the top week-long stage racers in the world, though his struggles earlier in the season do leave doubts about his chances at this Dauphiné and indeed his possible participation in the Tour. But a good week here and we may well see UAE heading to Barcelona for the start of the Tour with three genuine podium contenders.

Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Matteo Jorgenson was a surprise inclusion on the start list, having made a specific goal of the Tour de Suisse when setting out his stall earlier in the season. The US pro broke his collarbone at Amstel Gold Race and missed the remaining Ardennes Classics, having sacrificed the cobbled Classics this year. His team have simply stated that they felt the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes was a better way to get back into racing, perhaps given it's three days longer than Suisse.

Jorgenson will still get his shot at team leadership, as Tour de France leader Jonas Vingegaard is not racing between the Giro and Tour. With previous wins at Paris-Nice, a runner-up finish at Tirreno-Adriatico earlier in the year, and indeed a runner-up finish at this race in 2024, Jorgenson has the ability to make the podium, but the field is crowded.

Jorgenson doesn’t have the explosive climbing ability of Seixas or Del Toro, but his Visma team are arguably the favourite for the team time trial, with Wout van Aert and Bruno Armirail in the squad. That could form the basis of a push for the podium.

Oscar Onley, Carlos Rodríguez, Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany Ineos)

We’re treating this as a trio because Oscar Onley, Carlos Rodríguez, and Kévin Vauquelin have gone everywhere together this year, and are set to form an open leadership trio at the Tour de France. In some ways, this race could be an important step in finally sorting out some sense of hierarchy.

Rodríguez looked like a key part of Ineos’ GC ambitions when he placed fifth in the Tour, nearly left for Movistar, and was clawed back, but he hasn’t quite kicked on in the way that was envisaged. Results tailed off last year and have dried up this year, with a podium at Tour de la Provence followed by 23rd at Paris-Nice, 26th at Catalunya, and 12th at Romandie. The Spaniard really needs to reassert himself with a strong performance this week.

Onley is riding his first season at Netcompany-Ineos and, despite a bright start, hasn’t had the best of times, saying it’s “hard not to feel like I've let a lot of people down” after abandoning Romandie through illness. Onley also had to pull out of Paris-Nice through illness and was outside the top 10 at Catalunya. The 23-year-old was fourth at the Tour last year and just needs to find some consistency this week.

Finally, Vauquelin, another new signing, has arguably been the standout performer this year, with 4th at Paris-Nice and a top-10 in the Basque Country. As more of a puncheur than pure climber, there are doubts over his GC credentials in a mountainous Grand Tour, but he was a solid seventh at the Tour last year and is still seen as a rider with untapped potential.

Ineos won the team time trial at Paris-Nice, and with Josh Tarling once again in attendance, they should be the favourites for the TTT on stage 3. After that, it will be interesting to see how the trio dovetail their efforts, especially after some question marks at Paris-Nice, where Vauquelin was left behind and left to fend for himself in the crosswinds before storming back to be their best finisher on that crazy day.

Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Away from the GC picture for a short while, and Wout van Aert returns for the first time since he was hoisting a cobblestone trophy above his head inside a famous velodrome. Quite how much that Paris-Roubaix victory may have liberated him remains to be seen, notably as he builds towards the World Championships later in the season. But the Belgian has never had a problem at the Dauphiné, where he has won five stages in three appearances.

This is his first since 2022, but the race’s penchant for reduced bunch sprints on moderately hilly parcours has not diminished, and so he should find a happy hunting ground once again. What’s more, there’s a lack of top-level sprinters here, so Van Aert should be among the very fastest even on the days when it’s not super-selective.

Van Aert has had a long white away from racing and has a busy time ahead, with the Tour and also the Vuelta ahead of Worlds, but you wouldn’t bet against him raising his arms at this Dauphiné.

Dorion Godon (Netcompany Ineos)

If we’re talking about sprints on rugged stages without many pure sprinters, then Van Aert’s biggest headache this week might just be Dorion Godon. The French champion, yet another new signing for Netcompany-Ineos, has arguably been the team’s star performer this year, with five wins to his name across WorldTour events in Paris-Nice, Catalunya, and Romandie.

Godon is a beast on uphill sprints and can survive the selections on the reduced group sprint days, with some even talking up his chances of winning the green jersey at the Tour de France.

Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility)

Former Tour de l’Avenir winner Tobias Halland Johannessen has not taken the world by storm in his early years as a pro, but he’s steadily improving each year. 2026 has seen another uptick in results with fourth at Tirreno-Adriatico and a podium at Itzulia Basque Country.

He’s a quality rider who was fifth here last year ahead of sixth at the Tour, and he should be eyeing improvements on those numbers at both events this time around.

Dani Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

Colombian racer Dani Martínez wasn’t in the mix at all at Romandie, where his teammate Florian Lipowitz took charge, but he was the best of the rest behind Vingegaard at Paris-Nice in March.

Martínez had a poor 2025, but it’s only been two years since he was the runner-up behind Pogačar at the Giro d’Italia. He has the quality to do well this week, which could raise his status ahead of the Tour, where he’s set to line up alongside Lipowitz and Evenepoel.

Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar)

This feels like a big race for the 23-year-old Belgian Cian Uijtdebroeks, who is set to lead the line for his new team Movistar at the Tour de France. Uijtdebroeks set the world alight as a junior, but he hasn’t had the same effect in the pro ranks, where his time has been marked by disruptions, controversies, and inconsistencies.

His move to Movistar was an odd fit, and it hasn’t got off to the best of starts, with eighth at Catalunya and 12th at Itzulia Basque Country. Movistar boss Eusebio Unzué just publicly lamented the fact that his other GC leader, Enric Mas, fell out of the fight at the Giro, so Uijtdebroeks will need to start showing some proper form here to give the team some hope for July.