Valverde told cyclingweekly.co.uk: "This win is my biggest ever in a major week-long stage race." Valverde added: "And as such, it's great for my morale so close to July."

Valverde dominated the French stage race from the start: "I did well in the prologue [Valverde clocked the third time, editor], won the stage the next day, won the time trime trial [stage three] and then got the lead."

"After that I just tried to stay in control on the mountains - and it worked," Valverde said.

The happy winner even spoke about 'Operacion Puerto' and Italian anti-doping authorities who want to interogate the winner of this years Dauphiné. This years Tour de France will cross the border for a stage finish and restday in Italy. Valverde concluded his conversation with cyclingweekly.co.uk: "I'm not scared of that." he commented. "I'm just staying calm for now."

Stage winner Dmitriy Fofonov (Crédit Agricole) said: "Yesterday, our sports management already gave their gratulation to us with our good job here. In the sprint I was more affraid for Van de Walle as for Trofimov. I know that I have a good acceleration and today [Sunday, editor] I had good legs."

Fofonov's teammate Pierre Rolland won the mountain classification. The French young gun said: "I like the polka dot jersey and I would like to win it at the Tour de France some day. I like to climb but I don't know yet what type of rider I really am. I learned a lot here at the Dauphiné. Yesterday [Saturday, editor]I had a bonk, but today [Sunday, editor] I was strong again. I am not sorry for not riding the Tour this year. There are many other beautiful races."

Rabobank's Robert Gesink experienced a good week in the Dauphiné Libéré. Gesink finished fourth overall and with a distance of 2:47 on overall winner Alejandro Valverde, the Dutch talent was relatively close to Tour-favorites like Valverde and Cadel Evans. In addition, he finished ahead of numerous other strong Tour-riders as well.

While drawing up the balance after a week in the Alps it must be concluded that it was again a good one for the young stage-race rider. He had to cope with criticism from Belgian journalists, who reproached Gesink with using 'stupid tactics,' because he took Valverde with him in his wheel after an attack placed by Evans. "Nonsense of course," is how Rabobank's sports director Adri van Houwelingen defended his pupil. "Robert picked up the pace, because he had the podium within reach because Leipheimer had a bad day on Friday. He tried to get rid of Leipheimer and did not function as Valverde's luxury-helper. One is allowed to go for one's own success, right?"

Gesink's attempt was to no avail, after which a fourth place turned out to be the highest feasible. "Therefore, we completely geared Sunday's strategy to that fourth place. Robert would not be given an opportunity to claim a stage victory because he was so close in the overall ranking. Additionally, by taking risks his fourth place could have been in jeopardy, and the classification was just too valuable." The team leader would not have wanted to exchange fourth place for a stage win. "The final ranking had the highest priority. At a certain point during the race we were able to change our ambitions and aim for the podium, but that in the end was just not accomplishable."

Gesink's schedule for the upcoming weeks is completely focused on the Olympic games, which because of the difficult course in China is going to be his next goal. He will compete in the Dutch National Championships in the last weekend of June and then ride the Tour of Austria. After that, he and some of his teammates will go to training camp up in the mountains in Font Romeu. He will head for South-Korea on the first of August. From there he will travel to Beijing.

Van Houwelingen: "The Games is Robert's next primary goal. The Vuelta is still too far away to think about. In fact the Games are not very convenient for the preparation for the Vuelta. It will be impossible to return home immediately. So, Robert is going to have to stay in Beijing a little longer. Then upon his return he will need to become acclimatized to Europe again. We will just wait and see what his preparation for the Vuelta will look like."

For Team CSC Saxo Bank the seventh and final stage of Criterium du Dauphiné Libéré was all about keeping Lars Bak up front in order for the Danish rider to maintain his place among the top-20. Mission accomplished with a 10th place for Bak in the stage.

"No one made any attempts to catch the break and there were no attacks from the other CG riders either like I'd expected, so the break was allowed to last all the way. Lars Bak was going for a good result in the stage and it would've been interesting to see how he'd done if the peloton had chased the break," said CSC – Saxo Bank's sports director Scott Sunderland.

Regarding the overall performance in Dauphiné Libéré Sunderland said: "Lars Bak showed us that he's able to do well in the mountains like when he won Tour de l'Avenir. Hopefully he'll be able to maintain his form. Chris Anker Sørensen took a fantastic stage win and gave a taste of what's to expect from him in the future. Carlos Sastre came here to prepare for the Tour and he was happy with the indications he got."