After collecting the yellow jersey and a 20-second buffer in stage five, Porte extended the gap on on Team Sunweb pair Wilco Kelderman and Sam Oomen to 32 seconds with help from BMC teammates Michael Schär and Alessandro De Marchi.

The Hadspen rider said he was feeling good about his Tour de France prospects having finally recovered from an illness which hampered his preparation earlier this year. 

“The guys put me in a great position and they looked after me so I am happy with how the day went,” Porte said.

“This is a dress rehearsal for the Tour de France and it really showed today that we are there.

“It was good to take a little bit more time on some strong time trialists today – tomorrow on paper is maybe better for me and I am super motivated.”

Porte’s teammates led the way on the 186km stage from Fiesch to Gomminswald, which featured two hors categorie climbs and a category three leading to the finish line.

Each team had one rider in the breakaway, which managed to put five minutes on the peloton before De Marchi helped cut the gap back to two minutes with three kilometres to go. 

Porte left the first of his two attacks until 1.3km from the finish line and was able to break free of his rivals and finish in sixth, 27 seconds behind Sunweb’s stage winner Soren Kragh Andersen.

“I think that after the amount of work that the team did for me today, I had to do something,” Porte said of his attack on the final climb.

“Allan Peiper said on the radio ‘Richie if you have any gas, you gotta go,’ and I actually thought I had hit out a bit too early but when I heard that they were cracking, I dug in a little bit more.

“It really hurt but it is nice to take some extra time.

“Each and every one of the guys was really good, especially Michi Schär, he rode most of the stage for me.”

The 171km stage seven is the tour’s third last stage and is expected to finish in the early hours of Saturday.