A sprint stage but with few sprinters present a chance for the breakaway.The Route: 100% Saint-Pourain as the stage starts and finish in the town of Saint-Pourain-sur-Sioule and has a finishing loop based around the town.A flurry of early climbs means some will target the breakaway hoping to take the mountains jersey and if only for day its a prize and a photo opportunity. A likely sprint finish but theres 2,000m of vertical gain today to sap the sprinters. Whats also tiring is the use of dpartmentale roads today, small secondary roads that are often narrow.The Finish: a four kilometre long finishing straight and flat into town and wider. Todays finishing loop is the same as Paris-Nice used in 2015 but the finish line is earlier, theres no rise up to the line.The Contenders: a sprint at first glance. But if you like romantic notions (or force fed Wikipedia-grade symbolism) then todays finish town of Saint-Pourain is named after a freed slave so the breakaway can slip the pelotons yoke. If you like stats or just anecdotes the Dauphin opener can go to the breakaway in recent years and todays lumpy course on small roads suits escapees and there are not many sprinters with dedicated teams here. Only a handful of teams will want a sprint and they might hedge their bets by having a rider up the road in case too.Sam Bennett (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) is the obvious sprinter, a form pick after repeat wins in the Six Four Days of Dunkerque but he didnt face any star sprinters. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) isnt a sprinter but can win, especially on a hilly course and hes got Alex Kirsch for the leadout. Casper Pedersen (Soudal-Quickstep) can win a sprint from time to time. Milan Menten (Lotto-Dstny) is another sprinter but a rare winner and by now were into teams that might fancy placing a rider in the breakaway, likewise Hugo Page (Intermarch-Wanty), Blake Quick (Jayco) and Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Deceuncink).Breakaway picks are more a lottery for the right move. Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Harry Sweeney (EF) and Kobe Goosens (Intermarch-Wanty) are among the archetypal picks but spin that wheel-of-fortune for more choices.Bennett, M PedersenC Pedersen, Menten, Quick, Plowright, PageWeather: a cool 16C and a good chance of rain.TV: KM0 is at 12.35 and the finish is forecast for 4.45pm CEST.Postcard from Saint-Pourain-sur-SiouleSaint-Pourain-sur-Sioule is small town, pleasant but just not famous for much, if pushed its probably known for wine in France but among oenophiles rather than famous. Paris-Nice has had a finish here when Michael Matthews won the sprint here in 2015 and the Tour de France started here before too. Its a long way from the Dauphin.The Critrium du Dauphin gets its name from Le Dauphin libr, a newspaper formed in the post-war years whose title evokes both the post-war liberation and its area. The Dauphin, a historic kingdom or principality in the Alps which, to simplify, maps onto the Isre department around the city of Grenoble.One of the founders of the newspaper was Georges Cazeneuve and like many others he decided a bike race would make a great promotional tool. But unlike many other print promoters he had his idea later, at least in 1947. It seemed to work though, the paper and race both helped each other and Le Dauphin libr saw off competition from two other nascent newsletters to become the regional newspaper of the Alps. Remember in France the local newspapers often outsell the national ones: the Dauphin has a bigger print run than Le Monde.In 2010 Tour de France organisers ASO took over the race from the newspaper and renamed it the Critrium du Dauphin. Chopping the libr name from the title made sense as the newspaper has nothing to do with the race.Should the Dauphin name be kept? Its clearly no longer a race in and around the Dauphin. Saint-Pourain is a long way from the Dauphin and its capital Grenoble. Its closer to, say, Poitiers, Tours or Orlans. The Sioule rivers water makes it way to Loire and the Atlantic rather than the Rhone and the Mediterranean. Its really become the Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes Tour, perhaps its a matter of time until its rebranded as the Aura Tour?The post Critrium du Dauphin Stage 1 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.