Deceuninck-QuickStep`s Julian Alaphilippe and Philippe Gilbert will return to racing action on Sunday for the start of the Critérium du Dauphiné stage race in France - one of the two traditional routes to the Tour de France. While the team`s Tour de France GC hopeful Enric Mas will head to the Tour de Suisse, which starts the day before the end of the Dauphiné, Alaphilippe and Gilbert head to this year`s Grande Boucle on the hunt for stage wins, with the Dauphiné signalling the start of the second half of both riders` seasons. The pair last raced at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April, having both won races earlier that month: Paris-Roubaix in Gilbert`s case, while Alaphilippe won Flèche Wallonne. Gilbert has also won a stage of the Tour de la Provence this season, while Alaphilippe`s nine victories already this year include Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche.ADVERTISEMENT They will have similar roles to each other at the Tour in July, with both riders capable of winning stages, while Alaphilippe will also try to defend the polka-dot jersey he took as the winner of the mountains classification. The two riders experienced mixed fortunes at last year`s Tour, however. While Alaphilippe took two stages en route to being crowned `king of the mountains`, Gilbert crashed on the descent of the Col de Portet d`Aspet on stage 16, fracturing his knee cap, which kept him out of action until the GP d`Isbergues in late September - which he won. Twenty-six-year-old Alaphilippe`s future with Deceuninck-QuickStep was recently assured thanks to a contract extension that will keep the Frenchman with the Belgian WorldTour outfit until at least the end of 2021.
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