Traditionally hailed as the final dress rehearsal for the Tour de France, the Critérium du Dauphiné kicks off on Sunday with a star studded field containing perhaps the 4 biggest favourites for the Grand Boucle; Chris Froome (Sky), Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Joaquím Rodriguez (Katusha).

Rodriguez enjoyed a successful start to the season as he took stage wins in Tour of Oman and Tirreno-Adriatico and topped these off with top GC performances at Volta a Catalunya and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Since then Rodriquez has voluntarily been absent from the international scene as part of his build-up for this year’s Tour de France.

The French Grand Tour is the main objective of the season for the Spanish climbing specialist, which explains why last year’s runner-up at the Giro d’Italia chose to skip the Italian race this season. Instead the Critérium du Dauphiné sees his return to competitive cycling and it could be a happy reunion for Rodriguez who has very fond memories of the warm-up race for the Tour. In 2011 he won the last two stages of the often mountainous race, came 5th overall and won the points jersey and the KOM.

Two years ago, however, Rodriguez entered the Critérium du Dauphiné on a high note and in excellent form after finishing 4th overall at the Giro d’Italia. Furthermore, the Critérium ended Rodriguez’ spring campaign in 2011. Two years later and it’s an entirely different story as Rodriguez is unlikely to be able to or even interested in going all out in aggressive, attack-minded mode on the steep slopes.

In the absence of Rodriguez, Daniel Moreno assumed responsibility and a leading role on the Katusha team in last year’s edition of the race, winning two stages in impressive fashion. Moreno also takes to the starting line this year, leaving Katusha with the option of a two-pronged offensive manoeuvre.

Katusha line-up for Critérium du Dauphiné:

Sergey Chernetckii, Xavier Florencio, Mikhail Ignatyev, Petr Ignatenko, Timofey Kritskiy, Alberto Losada, Daniel Moreno, Joaquím Rodriguez.