Montluçon to host the opener

December 10 ^th 2024 - 11:25

The 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné is returning to Allier, the same department where the show got on the road in Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule last season. The opening stage will take place in the Montluçon Communauté agglomeration community and take the field on a 189 km romp from Domérat to downtown Montluçon.

Come 8 June, the sprinters will have to hang on for dear life on the climbs on the final circuit to remain in contention for the mad dash to the line.

Several prestigious races have called at Montluçon since Eugène Christophe won the 1925 Circuit du Bourbonnais there a century ago. Wout van Aert, who wore the yellow jersey of the Tour de France much more recently, claimed a time trial and vaulted into the overall lead there in the 2022 Paris–Nice. Last year, Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, located a bit further east but still within the Allier department, hosted the inaugural stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, with Mads Pedersen emerging victorious from a bunch sprint.

Both these riders will have a legitimate shot at wearing the leader's jersey if they throw their hats into the ring, but the circumstances would be rather different. Gilles Maignan is the mastermind behind the course from Domérat and Montluçon, which is a world apart from the 13 km that separated the two towns in the time trial at the Race to the Sun: "This time round, the course stretches for 189 kilometres. It consists of a wide loop around the department, followed by two laps of a circuit about 30 kilometres long". A mass sprint remains a distinct possibility, but the former French national time trial champion reckons that "the climbs near the finish could also provide a launch pad for aggressive riders, especially the Côte de Buffon, which is not too long but has an average gradient of 9% and comes less than 5 kilometres from the finish". These will be the opening moves in a battle set to continue the next morning when the peloton rolls out of Prémilhat towards a destination to be confirmed. The finish of stage 2 and the traditional mountainous terrain where the week-long race will culminate will be unveiled at the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council building on 29 January.