Chris Hamilton’s stunning summer of cycling continued on Sunday when he won the best under-23 rider title at the Herald-Sun Tour.
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The Bendigo cyclist started the year by winning the national under-23 road title in Ballarat, was fourth in the best young rider category at the Tour Down Under and couldn’t have been much more impressive at the Herald-Sun Tour.
Hamilton sealed the under-23 title by finishing fourth overall on Sunday’s gruelling final stage at Arthurs Seat.
He won the under-23 white jersey by 39 seconds from Alistair Donohoe and finished eighth in the general classification, one minute and 23 seconds behind winner Christopher Froome.
Central Victoria finished with four riders inside the top 20 in the general classification race.
Bendigo’s Jack Haig was fifth overall, 1:14 behind Froome.
The young gun finished alongside Hamilton in the final stage on Sunday and was only 13 seconds from a podium placing.
Bendigo’s Robbie Hucker was seventh overall, 1:20 behind Froome, while Barker’s Creek’s Lachlan Norris was 17th, 2:13 off the pace.
Froome won the last stage at Arthurs Seat and took the lead from Sky team-mate Peter Kennaugh.
It capped an ideal start to the season for the two-time Tour de France champion, who treated the race as much more than a training ride.
He and Kennaugh dominated the tour, with Froome letting his team-mate win stage two and take the overall lead.
Froome started Sunday's last stage trailing Kennaugh overall by 13 seconds.
The stage ended with three circuits of the steep 3km climb at Arthurs Seat and the summit finish.
Froome led the field at the end of the first two climbs, also meaning he won the king of the mountain category.
When New Zealander Joe Cooper attacked after the second climb, Froome went with him.
Froome went on to convincingly win the stage, beating Australian Damien Howson by 17 seconds.
Kennaugh was the big loser on the stage, finishing seventh.
Kennaugh and Australian rival Pat Shaw had a heated confrontation at the end of the stage.
Kennaugh blasted Shaw in his post-race media conference, saying the Australian had abused him.
"He just came up to me laughing in my face, calling me a selfish …., 'I don't know how you sleep at night' - Pat Shaw, his name is," Kennaugh said.
"(He said) 'I don't know how you sleep at night, you're disgusting' and all this. I just went and confronted him after the finish and he couldn't even look me in the eye.
"So it was a bit of a sour note to end on, with that - but that's sport, I guess, it happens, but there's just no need for it."
Shaw did not want to discuss Kennaugh's accusation, but his Avanti IsoWhey team manager Andrew Christie-Johnston said several days of tension had boiled over.
"We have a hot head, I'd say, in Pat Shaw and they have a hot head in Peter Kennaugh," Christie-Johnston said.
"At the end of the day, when two hot heads start tackling each other, you don't get a good response from either. At the end of the day, they'll walk away - there was nothing really to it other than a blue that you'd have in a schoolyard."