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In-form Porte triumphs in Tour of Catalonia

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Team Sky's Richie Porte held on to his overnight lead to win the Tour of Catalonia on Sunday, the in-form Australian securing one of the biggest victories of his career and laying down a marker for the Giro d'Italia.

Porte held off a strong challenge from Spanish Movistar rider Alejandro Valverde, who took first place on the final circuit stage around Barcelona's Montjuic hill for his third triumph of the seven-day race in north-east Spain.

Valverde was second overall, four seconds adrift of Porte, with Italian Domenico Pozzovivo of AG2R-La Mondiale a second further back in third and Tinkoff-Saxo's Alberto Contador fourth, seven seconds behind Porte.

"It’s unbelievable to be honest," Porte, who grabbed the leader's jersey on stage five, said on Sky's website (www.teamsky.com).

"It’s capped off a pretty awesome start to the season," added the 30-year-old, winner of the Paris-Nice stage race two weeks ago.

"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."

Tasmanian Porte is expected to mount a strong challenge at May's Tour of Italy, although double Tour de France champion Contador also looked in decent shape this week despite the Spaniard's nasty fall towards the end of Saturday's stage.

Pozzovivo and Colombian Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quick Step), fifth overall in Catalonia, also appear to be in good form ahead of the Italian showpiece.

Porte's Sky team mate, Chris Froome, by contrast, looked to be struggling after the 2013 Tour de France champion was forced to skip this month's Tirreno-Adriatico with an illness and finished well down the field.

(Writing by Iain Rogers, editing by Julien Pretot)