Froome says he is ready to unleash at the Dauphiné to measure the form he has developed during his team's tried and tested pre-Tour Tenerife training camp.
After racing the Giro effectively as pre-Tour prep last season and springboarding from the Tour de Suisse in 2017, he said a return to the Mt. Teide training/Dauphine double routine was a refreshing change.
“Our camp went really well," the three-time Dauphine winner said. "And as always at the second camp in Tenerife, I start to feel a lot more ready for racing. Now I’m looking forward to pinning on some numbers at the Dauphine.
“I’m really happy with where I’m at currently,” Froome added. “I was probably a bit eager earlier this season in Colombia and probably did a little bit too much.
“It’s hard to say where I’m going to be, given I haven’t done much racing recently, but I’d like to be there fighting for the overall win at the Dauphiné.
"The Tour group as a whole is moving forward and looking really good and ready for the next couple of months ahead. So hopefully we’ll have a really strong outing at the Dauphiné as well."
Fellow INEOS Dauphiné team-mates Michal Kwiatkowski, Wout Poels and Dylan Van Baarle also honed their form in Tenerife with their leader.
Adam Yates to lead strong squad
Adam Yates was on the attack on Stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya. Source: Getty
Like Froome, 26-year-old Yates is eager to pin on a race number.
“I’m looking forward to racing again after a small break and then a big training block following a busy start to the season. Dauphiné is always a hard race with everybody using it as a building block towards the Tour de France.
"It will be good for me to test where the legs are at and we’ve got a decent team also with Jack Haig coming back from injury so I’m excited to see what we can do there.”
Daryl Impey who won Stage 1 at the 2018 edition is also lining up again.
Mitchelton-Scott at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné: Jack Haig, Damien Howson, Daryl Impey, Luka Mezgec, Nick Schultz, Dion Smith, Adam Yates.
Tom Dumoulin returns to racing after Giro disappointment
Tom Dumoulin after Stage 4 of the 2019 Giro d'Italia (Getty) Source: Velo
Team Sunweb is realistically not expecting last year's Tour runner-up to challenge for overall Dauphiné victory saying in a statement his recovery is going a bit slower than hoped and no pressure or risks will be placed on him.
Team Sunweb at 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné: Johannes Fröhlinger, Joris Nieuwenhuis, Casper Pedersen, Robert Power, Florian Stork, and Martijn Tusveld.
Richie Porte's Trek-Segafredo squad confirmed
Australian Richie Porte's Dauphine squad was also finalised via a tweet overnight.
Live coverage of the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné begins Sunday 9 June at 9:45pm AEST on SBS Viceland with streaming at the Cycling Central website and SBS OnDemand apps.
