Richie Porte of Team Sky has won the Volta Catalunya.
The Australian Richie Porte was in the leader's jersey going into a final 126.2km stage that started and fnished in Barcelona with a five second lead over Domenico Pozzovivo.
The peloton were altogether for the first twenty four kilometres and this allowed Luke Megzec to take the first sprint of the day ahead of Valverde and Maes.
David Arroyo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Walter Pedraza (Colombia) and Marek Rutkiewitz (CCC Sprandi) did form a break and were 2.36 clear before they started onto the final fifty kilometre circuit which was broken down to eight laps of 6.4kms including a category three The Alt de Montjuïc climb with a lead of 2.14.
At the second crossing of the finish line, the gap stood at 1.38 and 1.40 a lap later.
Bryan Coquard of Europcar crashed following a touch of wheels with 36kms left and three kilometres later, Craddock and a Cofidis rider crashed.
Marek Rutkiewitz took the points for being first over the Montjuic with thirty kilometres left.
Ten kilometres later and the gap was down to 27 seconds as they went over the sixth crossing of the line.
Movistar were leading the peloton and after Pedrazza had taken the climb and subsequently catching the trio, Alejandro Valverde,needing seven seconds including time bonuses to take the race overall, made his move with five kilometres to go.
He was soon brought back and Dan Martin attacked with three kilmometres to go.
Martin of Cannondale-Garmin opened up a big gap of eight seconds as they went under the flam rouge.
Martin was caught and it was Alejandro Valverde who came up to win in 2.47.35 ahead of Coquard, Chernetskiy, Pantano, Hardy, Rojas, Uran, Pozzovivo, Valls and Brambilla.
There was no time difference between Valverde and Richie Porte and the Australian took the race win overall beating Valverde, Pozzovivo, Contador and Uran.
“It’s unbelievable to be honest,” Porte told TeamSky.com.
“It’s capped off a pretty awesome start to the season - starting from Down Under to now. I really couldn’t have imagined it would go this well after the year I had last year.”
With Team Sky also extending their lead in the WorldTour, Porte heaped praise on his team-mates for a week-long display of teamwork.
“Each and every one of them through the week has been there. In cycling you have good and bad days. You think they might be down but they bounce back and have a strong day. Xabi Zandio yesterday rode all day with Leo. Whenever there was a stick situation Lopez was there. We know Froomey is class but he really went out of his way to repay me and the sacrifices I’ve made for him. Kiry, Nico and Wout have all been incredible. It’s been a massive team performance.
“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.”