The Launceston 30-year-old cemented his spot at the top of the UCI WorldTour standings by becoming the first Australian to win the Volta a Catalunya just a fortnight after returning to the honour board at Paris-Nice, where he is also the sole Australian.

However, Porte said his back-to-back race victories are all building up to his primary focus of leading Team Sky into the first Grand Tour of the season – the Giro d’Italia on May 9.

‘‘It’s a dream result to get this. I’m really looking forward to the Giro now,’’ said Porte, who began the season with the Australian time-trial championship and has not looked back.

‘‘It’s unbelievable to be honest. It’s capped off a pretty awesome start to the season – starting from Down Under to now. I really couldn’t have imagined it would go this well after the year I had last year.

‘‘I’ll go home to Monaco and have a good week to rest, not do too much on the bike and spend time with my fiancée. Then it’s into training camp and Trentino.

‘‘We’ve got a good little run-up to the Giro so we can hopefully hit that in top form. I’m quite confident now that I can go there and fight for the podium.’’

Porte secured overall victory by four seconds after a fast-paced final stage in Barcelona, where he was shepherded by his teammates during eight tricky laps of the city.

Foundations for victory were laid on stage four where he put time into his chief rivals on the summit finish at La Molina.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) jumped up to second on the final day after taking a third stage win.

 FINAL GENERAL CLASSIFICATION: 1 Richie Porte (Sky) 30:30:30; 2 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) +04; 3 Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) +05; 4 Alberto Contador (Timkoff-Saxo) +07; Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quick-Step) +18.