Australia's Richie Porte lead Criterium International in France; Simon Gerrans wins in Spain

VIDEO: Australian rider Richie Porte has won the second stage of the Criterium International in Porto-Vecchio, France to take an overall  lead.

AUSTRALIAN rider Richie Porte has won the second stage of the Criterium International, a 7km time trial in Porto-Vecchio, France to take an overall one-second lead.

Two weeks after becoming the first Australian to win Paris-Nice for his biggest career victory, Porte is in a good position to win another race heading into Sunday's third and final stage.

Porte won the time trial around Porto-Vecchio in a time of 9 minutes, 10 seconds - one second faster than Italian rider Manuele Boaro and Tejay van Garderen of the United States, who are also second and third in the standings.

"Things have really improved since this winter," Porte said. "I really have to thank the team for that."

Tour de France runner-up Chris Froome is one second behind the pair in fourth place overall.

Sunday's final stage is a 176-kilometre ride featuring six climbs and finishing with a gruelling ascent up Col de l'Ospedale above Porto Vecchio in Corsica - where the 2013 Tour starts on June 29.

Team Sky is in a strong position on Sunday with both Froome and Porte in contention, with the Briton the better climber.

"I will be delighted to help Chris Froome tomorrow, but I'm sure he'll be very happy to help me too," Porte said.

Australia's former Tour champion Cadel Evans almost came off his bike and is down in 68th place, 45 seconds behind the lead.

Dutch rider Theo Bos won the day's first stage, an 89-kilometre trek around Porto-Vecchio, in a sprint finish by two seconds from French cyclist Nacer Bouhanni. Yukiya Arashiro of Japan was three seconds behind Bos in third spot.

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Gerrans wins Catalonia 6th stage

In Valls, Spain, Australian Simon Gerrans won the sixth stage of the Tour of Catalonia as Ireland's Daniel Martin retained his lead at the top of the overall standings.

Gerrans, who rides for Orica-GreenEDGE, prevailed in a sprint finish to the penultimate day's 178.7km run from Almacelles to Valls, beating Belgian Gianni Meersman, already a double stage winner of the race, and Daniele Ratto of Italy.

Race leader Martin extended his advantage over Joaquim Rodriguez by three seconds to 17sec with a 45sec gap back to Nairo Quintana.

The sixth stage was punctuated by an eight-man breakaway, eventually caught by the peloton four kilometres from the end.

Sunday's seventh and final stage is a 122.2km ride from El Vendrell to Barcelona, with the finish up the slopes of Montjuic where Rodriguez will be aiming to attack Martin.