In winning the time trial stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Launceston rider ideally positioned himself to win the Tour’s traditional lead-in race and follow the template which made his former teammate Chris Froome a triple champion.

Froome’s Tour victories in 2013, ’15 and ’16 all followed wins at the Dauphiné with fellow Sky frontman Bradley Wiggins also completing the double in 2012.

The result follows Porte’s win at the Tour de Romandie which also winners go on to claim Le Tour in 2011, ’12 and ’13.

“I'm really happy. We have seen in the past that if Chris Froome is good here, he is good at the Tour de France, so I just hope that's the same for me,” Porte said.

The 32-year-old BMC team leader gave his rivals a timely reminder that he has twice finished in the top six of time trial world championships in a dominant display over 23.5 kilometres from La Tour-du-Pin to Bourgion-Jalieu in southern France.

Porte’s victims included pace-setter and time trial specialist Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) who has won four individual and three team world titles in the discipline.

Two seconds behind the German at the intermediate check point, Porte relished a late uphill section to clock 28:07 and lead by 12 seconds.

With 29 riders still to finish, the Tasmanian patiently waited to claim the stage and move up to second on the general classification standings behind overnight leader Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) with four stage to go.

"I didn't expect to beat guys like Tony Martin and Chris Froome with so much time,” Porte said.

“I didn't expect to win this stage. I just felt really good.

“It's nice to lay down a time trial like this finally. I really worked hard on my time trialling this year and it's been a long time since I've done a good time trial like this.

“It's always nice to win bike races. I'd love to win this race but we'll have to see what happens the next few days. I think we have a great team here to make it hard on the weekend. They've been right around me the whole race. But I'd definitely rather be climbing well than time trialling well. 

“It's not over yet, there are some hard stages to come so I'm just happy with how today went. Whatever happens, happens but I'm on a good path."

Seeking to improve on his fifth place finish in Paris last year, Porte said he couldn’t be happier with a season which has already yielded victories in the Tour Down Under, Tour de Romandie and the queen stage of Paris-Nice.

"I'm really happy with where I'm at so far this season and the team has put a lot of faith in me. I have really found a happy place. Hopefully I'll have a bit of luck and it will be a good Tour de France for me.

"The Tour de France is going to be won more in the mountains than in the time trials. I'm quite confident in how I'm climbing at the moment. I think a time trial like that is probably a good test as to where your form is at."

While Porte is 27 seconds adrift of De Gendt, veteran Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) is his closest challenger, 24 seconds behind and seeking to improve his own impressive season which has previously seen wins at Volta a Catalunya, Tour of the Basque Country, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

There are four more stages of the Dauphiné with Le Tour beginning in Dusseldorf on July 1.