A month after wrapping up his second Tour Down Under title, the Launceston 35-year-old finished third in the three-stage Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var in France.

After Trek-Segafredo teammate Julien Bernard won the final stage, Porte finished the tour 40 seconds behind Colombian winner Nairo Quintana (Arkéa Samsic) and on the same time as second-placed Frenchman Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale).

"Great weekend for the team," Porte Tweeted after finishing the race just along the Mediterranean coast from his European base in Monaco.

"I didn't really know what to expect since I didn't have the best feelings with my legs today," he added on his team website.

"So to be able to go with Quintana and Bardet and finish third on general classification was nice. Our goal was to win a stage and finish on the final podium, and today we did that. It was incredible to see Julien win, he's always a guy that does his job for the team.

"But all the guys were fantastic these three days and it was a nice race for me to come back to Europe and start in a positive way. I am looking forward to two weeks' time and starting Paris-Nice."

Porte will be looking for a third win in the week-long race to the sun which begins on March 8. He is also listed to ride the Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné before his 10^th Tour de France begins in June.

Porte's teammate, fellow Tasmanian and training partner Will Clarke has completed a stage for the first time since a major crash in Belgium last June.

The Campbell Town 34-year-old came 118^th in the 148-kilometre opening stage of the UAE Tour which runs until Saturday.

Meanwhile, Hobart's Cameron Wurf completed his return to the World Tour with a 97^th place in the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal.

Riding for Team INEOS, the former Olympic rower was 73^rd in the final-stage 20.3km individual time trial in Lagoa.

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