Team Ineos continues to look for a winning combination from a strong team for the Tour de France and has re-called La Route d'Occitanie winner Egan Bernal and runner-up Pavel Sivakov to the team for the Criterium du Dauphiné, which starts Wednesday.

Bernal was called up to the team.

Bernal will once again share the leadership with 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas and four-time Tour champion Chris Froome. Domestiques Jonathan Castroviejo and Dylan van Baarle, and Michal Kwiatkowski, fresh off his 15th place finish in Milan-San Remo, will also be included.

Sivakov was key to Bernal's victory in the Col de Beirde on the third stage of Occitania la Route and was key to keeping the gap to the Colombians on the final stage to Rocamadour.

The 23-year-old's presence at the Criterium du Dauphiné will be a big help to Ineos, who lost to Jumbo-Visma in the uphill finish of this weekend's Tour de Ain.

Shortened from the usual eight stages to five, the revised 2020 Criterium du Dauphiné will start Wednesday with a tough 218.5-km stage that includes seven sectional mountains and a 1.5-km finish atop the Category 4 Col de la Gachet.

This stage is just a warm-up for the 135-km second stage to the summit of the Col de la Porte and the elevation gain finish of the third stage from the Col de la Madeleine to the Col de Saint-Martin-de-Belleville.

A third uphill finish awaits the riders on the fourth stage, the Altipole Pass in Megève, following the Pass de Bisanne. The final stage is the same climb, but with a total of eight climbs, including the Col de l'Homme and the Col de la Colombière.

With so many mountains and so little time before the Tour de France, the Criterium du Dauphiné will be a proving ground for Froome, who showed glimpses of his former self with a vicious turn in the Tour de Anne's Grand Colombier. But Froome and Thomas finished the race at the back of the pack after working for Bernal.

Froome will need to prove to Ineos coach David Brailsford that his long and difficult rehabilitation from the devastating injuries he suffered in last year's Dauphiné has not robbed him of his ability to contend for the Grand Tour. He also needs to prove that he is still loyal to the team, despite his impending move to the emerging Israeli country next season.

The race is also key to Team Ineos' selection of other riders for the Tour de France. Not only will it determine which rider will be the GC leader, but it will also select an important support rider.

Costa Rica's Andrei Amador, who competed in both Route d'Occitanie and Tour de l'Ain, was left off the Dauphiné roster but remains as an alternate along with Tao Geoghegan Hart, who crashed in Tour de l'Ain.

Castroviejo outperformed Froome and Thomas at the Tour de l'Ain, while Luke Rowe supported Richard Carapas at the Tour de Pollogne.