Ilness forced Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) to change his calendar in the run-up to the Tour de France, skipping the nine-day Tour de Suisse for the more low-key Route d`Occitanie, where the Spaniard made the most of his re-tooled schedule by taking a stage win and the overall at the four-day French race. `We must still remain happy, because after all, we won the overall classification,` Valverde said in a statement released by his team. `That`s a confirmation I did things right for the past month, even if I missed the Tour de Suisse due to illness. I feel like the whole team, as well as myself, did a brilliant job. The goals were more than accomplished - we came here just with a will to get ready for July and, after that, seeking for some wins, and we achieved both.`ADVERTISEMENT Valverde, who raced last at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, finished seventh on the first day of Route d`Occitanie, a 168km relatively flat stage won by Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) in a bunch sprint. He finished in the bunch the following day, which also concluded with a bunch sprint, allowing him to reserve some energy for his winning stage 3 effort. On Saturday, Valverde beat Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) and Kenny Elissonde (Team Sky) to the top of the fog-shrouded summit finish at Les Monts d`Olmes, taking the overall lead by 14 seconds over Navarro and 20 seconds over Elissonde. Not content to rest on his lead during Sunday`s final stage - 192.7km from Mirepoix to Cazouls-lès-Béziers - Valverde hit out again with Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) with 68km remaining after the peloton swept up day´s early break.
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