Along with the stage victory, Bettini took the overall lead of the race.

"All I was thinking about today was a stage victory."

A couple of years ago, France did not even take a stage victory.

"I wanted to let Roberto sit on his wheel and maybe come around for the stage victory, but it didn't work out."

If I have to give away all the stage victories to make some friends or to save myself, then that's not a problem for me.

"About the same," he said, "but the stage victory will probably remain with me longer."

The French scored one stage victory last year and had no rider higher than 15th place at the end.

His final stage victory was also good enough to give him the points classification.

"I was not desperate for a stage victory," he said at a news conference.

That dropped him to 62d place over all from a high of 12th after his stage victory on Sunday.