After two stages of Australia’s premier road race, Lea leads the King of the Mountain section, while Hamilton is well-placed to push for a top-10 finish in the general classification.

For the second day in a row Lea was part of an early breakaway on Wednesday.

Riding for the Uni South Australia team, Lea was joined by Kazakh Artyom Zakharov (Astana) and Spaniard Jaime Castrillo (Movistar).

They were caught by the peleton with 55km remaining, but not before Lea clinched full points in the King of the Mountain climb up Checkers Hill.

He has 20 points in the King of the Mountain – eight clear of Zakharov.

Hamilton is just 15 seconds behind general classification leader Patrick Bevin.

The Team Sunweb rider has twice finished inside the top 20 at the Tour Down Under in 2016 and 2018.

Hamilton’s strong climbing ability will be suited by the remaining four stages of the race.

Bevin unleashed an outstanding sprint to win stage two.

A big crash split the field in the last kilometre at the Barossa town of Angaston and there was no immediate word on casualties.

The win also gives Bevin (CCC Team) the race lead, five seconds ahead of Italian stage one winner Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick Step).

Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) rebounded from his stage one disappointment to take second and Slovakian star Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) was third, while Viviani also finished inside the top 10.

Bevin shot past Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), who made a long charge to the line.

The New Zealander used his strength on the uphill 700m finishing straight to hold off the sprinters.

"On a finish like that, I can play my cards pretty well," Bevin said.

"I don't think winning stage two was ever really on the cards, but just the way, with the hard, 'draggy' finish ... Sanchez was off the front and gave me a perfect springboard."