The last stage of this year's Dauphiné Libéré did not change the overall standings. After one week of racing, Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer successfully took his yellow jersey 'home' to Grenoble, as the stage ended in a bunch sprint won by Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole), with AG2R's Samuel Dumoulin getting second in front of Belgium's Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux).
"It was my goal to win a stage in the Dauphiné," said Hushovd post-race. "The race ended up better than it started. I got no chance to sprint for the win in the first two stages because we were the only team working for a sprint finish. Then I passed the mountains really well. I did a nice breakaway onto the Col d'Izoard. It's been good training for the Tour de France."
Hushovd's team Crédit Agricole "ripped those hills apart" according to Leipheimer, as there was one man to catch before the finish line: Stuart O'Grady (Team CSC), whose breakaway ended with only two kilometres to go. "It was strange for me to have the guys chasing Stuart O'Grady down, because he's a good friend of mine and he's been on my team for such a long time, but we had to race as we said in the morning: let a breakaway of three riders or so go and then ride behind them."
