August 9th, 2020 – Critérium du Dauphiné and its 72nd edition with five hard mountain stages and 817 km of racing, with all stages finishing at the mountain tops and the extremely hard Stage 4, culminating on the slopes leading up to the famous ski resort of Megève. This will be the Grand Matinée and fine-tuning for the upcoming Tour de France 2020.
Five big mountain battles will be a big examination for all teams and their climber specialists.
Mikel Landa:
“After taking 2nd place overall at Vuelta a Burgos, I believe that for Critérium du Dauphiné climbs I will be in even better and very good shape. These hard climbs of the French Alps are always very challenging for me. I’m looking forward to racing there and give my best and keep my good feeling of racing”.
Gorazd Štangelj, Sports Director:
“We are heading Critérium du Dauphiné with a very strong roster and we are ready to set up the roles and upgrading confidence of each of our riders and team member ahead of the Tour de France 2020. Our GC and our “main violin” is Mikel Landa which is in the uprising form and after taking 2nd place overall at Vuelta a Burgos he looks better, day by day.
All our riders at Critérium du Dauphiné are here for Mikel and each one of them will have an important role for Mikel. As our team goals are very high, as always, we would be happy to take the GC podium place and continue the focus to the Tour de France 2020. Matej Mohorič and Sonny Colbrelli will always keep Mikel in a safe place. Damiano Caruso will be Mikels’ last man at the climbs and our road captain. Pello Bilbao and Rafa Valls will take a mountain engine role for Mikel and Dylan Teuns will always be there for the mountains and a team anchor for positioning.
Execution of team strategy at the maximum point, getting confidence in all performance areas, execution of Team Bahrain McLaren in a World-class way of working and a very important objective is to keep maximum attention on towards Covid-19 restrictions and keeping all our team members safe and healthy”.
Team Bahrain McLaren lineup for Critérium du Dauphiné 2020:
Pello Bilbao / Damiano Caruso / Sonny Colbrelli / Mikel Landa / Matej Mohorič / Dylan Teuns / Rafael Valls Ferri
