2012 Critérium Du Dauphiné

The 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné was the sixty-fourth running of the Critérium du Dauphiné cycling stage race; a race rated as a World Tour event on the UCI calendar, the highest classification such an event can have. The race consisted of eight stages, beginning with a prologue in Grenoble on 3 June, and concluded in Châtel on 10 June. The race was organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation, the same group that organises the Tour de France. It was viewed as a great preparation for July's Tour de France, hence why a majority of the contenders for the general classification of the major tour participated in the Dauphiné. It featured mountainous stages as well as an individual time trial quite similar in length to those that awaited the riders in the Tour.

The race was won for the second successive year by rider Bradley Wiggins, who claimed the leader's yellow and blue jersey after the first stage, extending his race-leading advantage after winning the fourth stage individual time trial, and ultimately maintained that advantage. Wiggins became only the third rider to win the Dauphiné and Paris–Nice – a race that Wiggins had won in March – in the same year after Jacques Anquetil (1963 and 1965) and Eddy Merckx (1971) had previously done so.

Wiggins' winning margin over his team-mate and runner-up Michael Rogers was one minute and seventeen seconds, and 's Cadel Evans completed the podium, nine seconds down on Rogers. In the race's other classifications, rider Cayetano Sarmiento won the King of the Mountains classification, Evans won the green jersey for the points classification, 's Wilco Kelderman won the young rider classification, with finishing at the head of the teams classification by over thirteen minutes, after placing four riders inside the final overall top ten placings.

Participating teams

As the Critérium du Dauphiné was a UCI World Tour event, all eighteen UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Four other squads were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 22-team peloton. All twenty-two squads that competed in the Dauphiné contested the Tour de France later in the year.

The twenty-two teams that competed in the race were:

Schedule

The route for the race was announced on 27 March 2012.

Stages

Prologue

;3 June 2012 — Grenoble, , individual time trial (ITT)

The Dauphiné began with its traditional short individual time trial stage, with a near-flat course around the streets of Grenoble; the city was hosting the prologue of the race for the fourth time in fifteen years following prior starts in 1997, 2000 and 2007, the last of which was won by the 2011 race winner Bradley Wiggins, then riding for the team. With rain expected to disrupt the stage, as it had done so in the 2011 prologue, teams decided to spread their time trial specialists across the field in order to maximise their potential of winning the stage. For the first rider to depart the start in Grenoble, 's Lieuwe Westra, weather conditions were dry. Westra ultimately recorded a time of 6' 46" for the stage, which was good enough for a top-12 stage placing after all 175 riders had taken to the course. Westra's time was beaten shortly afterwards by rider Carlos Barredo, who went four seconds quicker around the course, in length.

Barredo held the top spot for around quarter of an hour, as his time was marginally beaten by Andriy Hryvko, a four-time Ukrainian champion in the discipline, riding for the team. Soon after, the eventual stage-winning performance was recorded by the Australian national champion Luke Durbridge, for . Durbridge set a time of 6' 38", in the favourable conditions; he held on to his spot throughout the expected changeable weather that was a factor in the remainder of the running order. Following a rain shower that effected the racing during the middle portion of the stage, the later riders to take to the course did have dry roads to contend with but the wind had picked up and made conditions more difficult than what the earlier riders had for their passages through the parcours. Durbridge's time remained untroubled to the end, despite the best attempts of defending champion Wiggins, who finished just 1.35 seconds in arrears in second place, having started last of the 175 competitors. Thus, Durbridge took his first stage victory at World Tour level, which gave him a clean sweep of the jerseys post-stage, for holding the lead of the overall, points and young rider classifications. Other overall contenders Tejay van Garderen (), 's Tony Martin, Jérôme Coppel (), as well as van Garderen's team-mate Cadel Evans and 2010 winner Janez Brajkovič () all lost time in comparison to Wiggins; Martin placed best in fifth position, although Evans also made the top ten, in ninth place.

Stage 1

;4 June 2012 — Seyssins