 The 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné was the sixty @-@ fifth running of the Critérium du Dauphiné cycling stage race ; a race , organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation , rated as a World Tour event on the UCI calendar , the highest classification such an event can have . The race consisted of eight stages , beginning in Champéry on 2 June – the first such start for the race in Switzerland – and concluding in Risoul on 9 June , and was the sixteenth race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season . The Dauphiné was viewed as a great preparation for July 's Tour de France and a number of the contenders for the general classification of the Tour participated in the Dauphiné . It featured mountainous stages as well as an individual time trial similar in length to the Tour . 
