Richie Porte of Team Sky wins Volta a Catalunya

Australia's Richie Porte continued his fine early season form with victory at the Volta a Catalunya on Sunday.

The Team Sky rider followed up his Paris-Nice win earlier this month by clinching overall victory in Barcelona.

Porte, 30, won by four seconds from Spain's Alejandro Valverde, who took Sunday's seventh and final stage around a hilly 126.6km circuit.

The decisive moment in the week had come on stage four when Porte impressed on the summit finish at La Molina.

Double Tour de France champion Alberto Contador of Spain finished fourth overall, while Britain's 2013 Tour winner Chris Froome ended the race 45 minutes off team-mate Porte in 71st place.

"It's unbelievable to be honest," Porte told Team Sky., external "It's capped off a pretty awesome start to the season.

"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."

Final classification:

1. Richie Porte (Aus/Team Sky) 30hrs 30mins 30secs

2. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) +4secs

3. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita/AG2R) +5secs

4. Alberto Contador (Spa/Tinkoff-Saxo) +7secs

5. Rigoberto Uran (Col/Etixx-Quick-Step) +18secs

6. Fabio Aru (Ita/Astana) +27secs

7. Darwin Atapuma (Col/BMC Racing) +33secs

8. Rafael Valls (Spa/Lampre) +1hr 35secs

9. Daniel Martin (Ire/Cannondale) Same time

10. Jarlinson Pantano (Col/IAM Cycling) +2hrs 16secs

Stage seven:

1. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) 2hrs 47mins 33secs

2. Bryan Coquard (Fra/Europcar) Same time

3. Sergey Chernetsky (Russ/Katusha) Same time

4. Jarlinson Pantano (Col/IAM Cycling) Same time

5. Romain Hardy (Fra/Cofidis) Same time

6. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa/Movistar) Same time

7. Rigoberto Uran (Col/Etixx-Quick-Step) Same time

8. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita/AG2R) Same time

9. Rafael Valls (Spa/Lampre) Same time

10. Gianluca Brambilla (Ita/Etixx-Quick-Step) Same time