The big names are out in force for the 67th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné which starts today.
Former Tour De France winners Chris Froome of Team Sky and 2014 winner Vincenzo Nibali of Astana will both compete after training schedules in Mallorca.
Team Sky rely heavily on British and Irish riders to support Froome with Peter Kennaugh, Luke Rowe and Ian Stannard backed by Ireland's Nicholas Roche and Phillip Deignan with Ian Boswell and Wouter Pouls making up their team.
There is plenty more British and Irish interest with Dan Martin riding for Cannondale-Garmin, Adam and Simon Yates for Orica GreenEdge, Alex Dowsett riding for Movistar and Steve Cummings for MTN Qhubeka.
Amongst those who will be challenging Froome and Nibali in this warm up for the Tour De France are Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, Tejay Van Garderen of BMC, Joaqium Rodriquez of Katusha, Bauke Mollema of Trek Factory Racing and Rui Costa of Lampre-Merida.
Stage One of eight starts with a 131.5km stage from Ugine to- Albertville, which features two category four climbs and six cateogry three climbs.
Monday's stage two is a 173km stage from Le Bourget-du-Lac to Villars-les-Dombes and sees a start of the Col Du Chat but this should be one for the sprinters.
Stage Three is a team time trial of 24.5kms from Roanne to Montagny before a long 228km stage from Anneyron to Porte de Drome Ardeche to Sisteron, which features three climbs before the finish.
There are more climbs on stage five with a 161km stage from Digne-les-Bains to Pra-Loup having the category one Col d'Allos climb some 22kms from the finish and a 6.2km climb to the the Pra Loup finish line.
Stage six is from Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur to Villard-de-Lans/Vercors and this 168km stage will provide another tough day in the mountains.
Saturday's stage seven features seven category one climbs on a 155km stage from Montmelian to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc.
Those left in the race face a final day of climbs on a 156.5km stage from Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc to the 1553m Modane Valfrejus climb which is 8.4kms long and has average gradients of 5.7%.