Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2026 start list | One-third of the peloton already out

After the Giro d’Italia, we focus on a whole new batch of riders, many of whom are building towards the Tour de France. Some of them will do so via the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the new name for what we knew as the Critérium du Dauphiné. IDL Pro Cycling brings you the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2026 start list.

Originally, Remco Evenepoel was due to be one of the stars on the start list, but the Belgian of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe is opting for a build-up without a stage race on the road to the Tour de France.

The other big Belgian star, Wout van Aert, is there. He will ride for Visma | Lease a Bike with Matteo Jorgenson — who had originally been due to ride the Tour of Switzerland — and Ben Tulett. In addition, the team time trial will be an important test for the team, and for all the other squads, ahead of the first day of the Tour.

From France, all eyes will be on Paul Seixas, who will also prepare for his first Tour de France on home soil. The Decathlon CMA CGM climber is also regarded as the top favourite for the stage race.

Lidl-Trek will line up with Mattias Skjelmose and Juan Ayuso, while UAE Emirates-XRG will field Isaac del Toro and João Almeida. Netcompany INEOS will do the same with Oscar Onley, Kévin Vauquelin and Carlos Rodríguez. Those teams will be looking to put Seixas and Jorgenson under as much pressure as possible.

In the first days of the French stage race there were quite a few challenges. Decathlon immediately lost a luxury servant for Seixas, Matthew Riccitello, due to illness. NSN immediately lost two riders with Brady Gilmore and Rotem Tene, Picnic PostNL saw Juan Guillermo Martinez retire after a crash. Florian Samuel Kajamini did not reach the time limit and had to leave the race at XDS Astana.

In the second stage, Roel van Sintmaartensdijk (Lotto-Intermarché) and Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural) did not reach the finish. Before the team time trial in stage 3, Diego Pescador's name was also removed from the race by Movistar — the Colombian was also suffering from illness.

Two days later, the Spanish team faced further cutbacks, as Ivan Romeo and Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda also had to abandon the race before stage five. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) was unable to continue for the same reason.

Before stage six, Matevz Govekar also had to withdraw from the race due to a virus. Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) withdrew after his return was deemed sufficient by the team. Wout van Aert won stage five, but had to withdraw a day later: the Belgian rider from Visma | Lease a Bike is suffering too much from his elbow after a crash in training and will have it examined.

Wout van Aert won stage five, but had to abandon one day later. The Belgian rider from Visma | Lease a Bike was still suffering too much from his elbow after a crash in training and will have it examined. Pau Marti (NSN) and Hannes Wilksch (Tudor) also did not start.

During the stage, Joshua Tarling crashed early, and it later turned out that he had broken his collarbone. It was a miserable day all round for Netcompany INEOS, which also saw team leader Oscar Onley crash and dislocate his shoulder. He, too, would not make it to the Saturday and Sunday stages.

Michael Leonard (EF Education-EasyPost), Anton Kuzmin (XDS Astana), Senna Remijn (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) and Hamish McKenzie (Jayco AlUla) also abandoned. Julien Arreloabengoa (Caja Rural) missed the time limit.

On Saturday, the day Stage 7 was held, the virus—which had already affected several riders during the week—appeared to be spreading even faster. No fewer than 14 riders did not start, including Jorgen Nordhagen (eleventh in the general classification) and Per Strand Hagenes of Visma | Lease a Bike.

Also absent were Pepijn Reinderink, Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step), Gijs Leemreize, Dillon Corkery, Alexey Faure-Prost (Picnic PostNL), Nicola Conci (Astana), Emanuel Buchmann, Louis Rouland (Cofidis), João Almeida (UAE), Marco Frigo (NSN), and Ben Healy of EF didn’t even see the starting signal. During the stage, Gal Glivar (Alpecin-Premier Tech, crash) and Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) had to abandon.

After the finish, it emerged that Daniel Felipe Martinez (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Daan Hoole (Decathlon CMA CGM), Pascal Eenkhoorn, Steff Cras (Soudal Quick-Step), Samuel Watson (Netcompany INEOS), Mathieu Kockelmann (Lotto-Intermarché) and Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) would no longer be in the race either. That left 106 riders for the final stage.

That number quickly rose to 103, because even before the start of the stage, Jayco AlUla announced that Luke Plapp and Alessandro Covi had to pull out due to fever. The same was true for XDS-Astana rider Lorenzo Fortunato.

The Critérium du Dauphiné was rebranded to the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to reflect the growing partnership with the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional government and to emphasize the race's expanded geographical reach across the 12 departments of the territory.

Race organizer ASO officially altered the historic name, which dates back to its origins as Le Dauphiné Libéré in 1947, to be more aligned with the extensive logistical and financial support provided by the local host region.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]