Building Up: Dauphine Libere Stage Race Provides Tour de France Favorites a Testing Ground for July

The Dauphine Libere, as it does every year, provides many of the upcoming Tour de France favorites a chance to ride against each other on stage that are similar to July's Grand Boucle. Most Tour favorites hold back just a shade at the Dauphine to avoid peaking too soon ahead of the biggest bike race in the world. Others in the race will use the Dauphine as a spring board to future stardom, as a win in the eight day event remains very prestigious.

There are several riders competing at the Dauphine who will be among the leader's in the Tour, starting with 2007 Tour champion and heavy 2009 Tour de France favorite Alberto Contador. Contador, as he does in every race he enters, will look for the overall win, but expect too that he won't go too far into the red if the action becomes too frenetic throughout the race. Contador's number one goal is a 2nd win at the Tour, and he'll do nothing to compromise his chances.

Two-time Tour de France runner up Cadel Evans will be at the Dauphine as well, and like Contador he'll look to ride at the front of the race, but likely has no illusions of winning the overall. Instead he'll try to stay at the front on the decisive climbs and try to put in a good ride in the stage three time trial. He'll likely also be keen to see how his team holds up as he looks for support ahead of his season's biggest target, something he was sorely lacking in 2008.

Other Tour de France GC hopefuls that will be riding the Dauphine include Liquigas' Vincenzo Nibali, Quick Step's Stijn Devolder, and Milram's Linus Gerdemann. These three certainly aren't top favorites for the Tour though, so they may also decide to try for the overall at the Dauphine instead of using it only as training.

In addition to the riders above, there will be riders at the Dauphine specifically chasing the overall title. Headlining this group is none other than last year's winner "Don" Alejandro Valverde of the Caisse d'Epargen team. Valverde likely won't be riding the Tour de France as he is banned in Italy (one stage of the Tour finishes in Italy), so expect that the Spaniard will lay all his chips on the table in attempting to win the event for the second consecutive year.

Rabobank's newly crowned Giro d'Italia champion Denis Menchov won't be on hand at the Dauphine Libere, so leadership duties will instead fall to the young climber on the team, Robert Gesink. Gesink is a big talent still learning the ropes, particularly in the time trial discipline, but his climbing ability is superb. If he can escape on one of the summit finishes, Gesink could possibly hope for a podium finish on the GC. For the Tour, he'll be a candidate for best young rider honors.

Other wild cards to watch include Garmin's young Irish hope Dan Martin, who will hope for a stage win on one of the mountain stages, and Lampre's youngster Simon Spilak. Only 22, Spilak has progressed nicely thus far in 2009, and will hop for a top 20 overall at the Dauphine. Finally, French hope Remi Di Gregorio will try for his Francaise des Jeux team, and Cyril Dessel will do the same for his Ag2R squad.

The Dauphine Libere, though not as well attended as in years past, will nevertheless provide an important look into the form of some of the Tour de France's biggest favorites. Each of these riders will need to be careful to avoid crashes or sickness, as either could derail their GC hopes for the Tour. Calmness will be the order of the day, and the competitive fire will need to be tamped down as the top riders wait to unleash their full athletic fury in about a month's time.