Jakob Fuglsang is expected to lead the Astana team at the Tour de France and like most of the other GC contenders he will prepare his assault on the world's biggest stage race in the Criterium du Dauphiné which starts tomorrow. At the same time, an in-form Francesco Gavazzi hopes to take a stage win in one of the lumpier stages in the early part of the race.

Astana got their 2013 grand tour season off to a fantastic start when Vincenzo Nibali was crowned Giro champion in Brescia one week ago and the Kazakh team hopes to continue run of success in the three-week races at the Tour de France later this month. Jakob Fugslang will be the team's leader at the world' biggest race, and while an overall win is probably beyond his reach, he hopes to take his first ever top 10 finish in the race.

The Dane will finish his preparations this week in the Criterium du Dauphiné which serves as the final tune-up for the French grand tour for many of the world' best race. The race is held in the French Alps and offers both a long time trial and some solid climbing for the Tour contenders to test their legs.

Fuglsang has had a modest start to the season. He performed well in the Vuelta a Andalucia in February but fell ill at his first season target, the Paris-Nice. He went on to finish an encouraging 11th in the Volta a Catalunya and performed strongly as a domestique in the Ardennes classics.

He now hopes to take his first top 10 result in a WorldTour race his season but knows that the Dauphiné is a tough affair.

"It's going to be a very hard race, with no easy stages," he said." Each day is up and down, and at least in the first part of the week the weather forecast does not look so good, so that will only make it extra hard."

Fuglsang has spent some time in June by checking out some of the key climbs for this year's Tour and is ready to reap the benefits of that hard training both in the coming weeks and the month of July.

"At some point or another in my career I have raced up most of these mountains," he said. "A lot of the same climbs are used again in races  in some way. For the Tour this year it was good to see the important climbs with the team. In training we had bad weather, with temperatures at 3C on the top of the climb and wet snow. But we got through it and it was really good to see where we will return in July."

It will, however, not be all about Fuglsang at the Dauphiné. Francesco Gavazzi is in red-hot condition at the moment and was one of the strongest climbers in the recent Tour of Belgium. He beat world champion Philippe Gilbert to finish 2nd behind Luis Leon Sanchez in the race's queen stage and finished 6th overall despite his modest time trial abilities.

The Italian is not a man for the highest mountains but his explosive nature and fast finish makes him perfectly suited to the lumpy finishes in stages 1, 2 and 3. Sports director Dmitri Sedoun has plenty of confidence in his rider.

"Gavazzi had a very strong Tour of Belgium, and has set his sights on a stage result at the Dauphine - he has raced a lot in the rain so far this season and the first few days this week will be in his favor," he explained.

Fuglsang will enjoy solid support in the mountains from Kevin Seeldraeyers and Egor Silin while Andrei Grivko, Dmitriy Muravyev and Assan Bazayev should serve as his key domestiques in the first few stages. Meanwhile, U23 world champion Alexey Lutsenko continues his transition into the pro ranks by taking part in his hardest race ever.

Starting today at 13.00 you can follow the action from the first stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Astana for the Criterium du Dauphiné

Jakob Fuglsang, Francesco Gavazzi, Alexey Lutsenko, Kevin Seeldraeyers, Andriy Grivko, Dmitriy Muravyev, Assan Bazayev and Egor Silin