Sky on a high as Tour approaches

His Sky team proved to be a formidable unit in France throughout the week in a race that is seen as a key warm-up ahead of the Tour, which begins on 30 June.

"The Tour de France is on the horizon. It's a lot more complicated as a race but we're where we want to be, in a good position and looking forward to it,” Sky’s sports director Sean Yates said.

"The riders need to recover from this and keep the legs turning. You're not going to improve your condition between here and the Tour.

"It's only around the corner. Going in as one of the favourites is going to be a lot of hard work."

Sky had three of the top four riders in the general classification, including Wiggins and Australian Michael Rogers, fresh from a win at the Bayern-Rundfahrt last month.

Rogers finished second, 1 minute 17 seconds behind Wiggins, while Wiggins’s countryman Chris Froome was fourth at 1 minute 45 seconds.

Cadel Evans, BMC’s defending Tour de France champion, finished third overall, 1 minute 26 seconds adrift of Wiggins, but was more than happy with his form across the week, in which he won Stage 1 and looked strong throughout.

Evans, a four-time runner-up in the Dauphine, had lost most of his time to Wiggins in Thursday's 53.5km time trial, leaving the Australian with no choice but to attack in the remaining stages in a bid to close the gap.

"I came here to try and win, but I was beaten by a better team and a better guy," Evans admitted.

"It was a week of hard racing and a good bit of training toward July and hopefully my big form of the year so far."

Yates added that he was delighted the team had come in and achieved what they had set out to do.

"It's been a great effort by the team and a fantastic week. We couldn't have asked for more," he said.

"We came into the race with a clear plan which was to try and win it and obviously Bradley came up with the goods which was mighty impressive. He had a fantastic team to back him up."

After paying tribute to his team-mates, Wiggins said he was reassured to have defended his title.

"I think it's always harder to do it a second time," he admitted.

"Last year I didn't come into the race as the favourite so to do that this year and know from day one, from being second in the prologue, that I was one of the favourites, it's a better and harder way to win.

"Obviously we've had a few goes at it now so I think we're getting better at it if anything. It's probably gone better than the other races have gone this season, it's been a lot smoother."

Wiggins's second successive victory is the third for a British rider in the 64 editions of the race, after Robert Millar (1990) and Brian Robinson (1961).

The 32-year-old Londoner seized the overall lead on Monday's first stage and all but assured victory after his performance in the time-trial in Bourg-en-Bresse.

This was an eighth win of the season for the triple Olympic track champion, who will now be among the leading contenders to win this year's Tour de France, which starts in Liege, Belgium, on 30 June.