On June 2nd, the first day of racing at the Tour de Dauphine officially kicked off.
The stage was a 172.5 km circuit race held in the French city of Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioul.
The start and finish lines were located very close to each other.
The riders would depart from the start, complete one large loop around the entire city of Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioul, return to the starting area, and then ride two smaller finishing circuits before a final flat sprint to the finish line.
The main difficulty of the stage was concentrated in the mountain climbs during the first 111.5 km of the large loop.
The final 60-odd kilometers consisted of two smaller circuits. This section of the route was relatively flat, with only one short 600-meter climb at an average gradient of just 6.4%.
