Chris Froome's back-to-back stage wins on the final two days of the Critérium du Dauphiné gave him overall victory for the second consecutive time, shortened his odds for a Tour de France victory in July and greatly boosted moral at Team Sky.
Froome turned an 18 second deficit to Tejay van Garderen (BMC) into a 10 second lead in Modane Valfréjus on the final stage, to add his name to the list of overall winners for a second time.
The 2013 Tour de France winner was pleased with his second stage win of the season, after taking victory the Ruta del Sol in February, but reiterated that his focus is fixed on July.
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"The Dauphine was a big focus for me, but the Tour de France is the main objective. The team is ready, and I'm almost ready. There are a couple of things I need to work on but we're less than three weeks away now and I'm really looking forward to it," Froome said in a team statement.
Team Sky spent the majority of the final stage of Critérium du Dauphiné at the front of the peloton, controlling a 13-rider breakaway. At the base of the final climb for the day to Modane-Valfréjus, Froome had Wout Poels for company while van Garderen found himself without a teammate. It was advantage Froome and Team Sky, and when the attack was launched with 2.5 kilometres remaining, a fourth win in five years for the team it appeared inevitable.
"I can't believe it. I couldn't have expected it to go any better. My legs were really tired after and the whole team was suffering," Froome said immediately after his victory. "I don't know how they did it but everyone lifted themselves with the yellow and blue jersey in sight. They gave everything – Ian Stannard rode alone for almost 100km to control the breakaway and the rest of the team were fantastic up to that moment where I could attack and put pressure on Tejay," Froome said.
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