Chris Harper will make his return to racing this weekend to lead Team Jayco AlUla at the eight-day Critérium du Dauphiné.
After recovering from his crash at the Tour of the Alps in April, the Australian has been training at altitude in preparation for his goals this summer.
Joining Harper at the Dauphiné will be Davide De Pretto, who claimed fourth overall at the Coppi e Bartali earlier this season, and the in-form Callum Scotson, who finished seventh at the recent Tour de Hongrie.
Rounding out the line-up, with a mixture of youth and experience, are Luke Durbridge, Chris Juul-Jensen, Jan Maas, and Blake Quick.
The Critérium du Dauphiné gets underway this Sunday, 2nd June with a rolling 172km stage out and back from Saint-Pourçain-Sur-Sioule. The course only gets tougher from there with a double header of summit finishes on stages 7 and 8 to conclude the race the following weekend.
Team Jayco-AlUla for Criterium du Dauphiné
Chris Harper (AUS)
Davide De Pretto (ITA)
Callum Scotson (AUS)
Luke Durbridge (AUS)
Chris Juul-Jensen (DEN)
Jan Maas (NED)
Blake Quick (AUS)
Chris Harper:
“I’m looking forward to getting back into racing at the Dauphiné. After my crash at Tour of Alps, I had some good rest and have now been back on the bike training up in Sierra Nevada to get ready for the upcoming races. It looks like a challenging course also with a long hard TT in it so it will be a good test to see where my shape.”
Rafael Valls (Sport Director):
“It is a complete parcours, because they have two stages for the sprinters, one long and hard TT, three mountain stages, and two for the breakaway. It’s full of opportunities for our team. We have some riders that can look for opportunities in the breakaway, like De Pretto, Scotson, and then for Chris Harper we want to support him to do the best GC possible. We have Maas and also some very experienced guys in Juul-Jensen and Durbridge that can support Harper.
Harper has recovered from the crash at the Tour of the Alps, and at the training camp in Sierra Nevada he was good. The Dauphiné will be his first race since the crash, but everything is going well. It’s the last race before the Tour de France so it is an important test for him.”
Photo: Sprint Cycling
