Chris Hamilton's first year in the WorldTour with Team Sunweb has been a baptism of fire. The 21-year-old Australian had previously ridden just one WorldTour race but just over the halfway mark of 2017 and he's notched up eight and taking it all in his stride.
The former mountain biker is also into new territory having clocked over 40 race days for the first time in his career. With Sunweb's coach and sports director Luke Roberts and personal coach Mark Fenner monitoring his race and training load, Hamilton has finished all but two race so far in 2017, De Brabantse Pijl and the Tour of California the exceptions.
"The good thing about the team is that we know what we are doing for the rest of the year, all going well, in December. When Luke went through the programme and told me all the races, that was pretty exciting hearing all the races you hear about and see on TV," Hamilton told Cyclingnews.
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"It is a good confidence boost for me to know that I have made it this far at least and I can handle the training and racing load. I already have quite a few race days compared to a lot of first-year guys so I am pretty happy to handle it."
Although not at the front of the race, Hamilton fought through to finish Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and even a late call up to the Criterium du Dauphine. Of the seven stages races Hamilton has started in 2017, Tour de Yorkshire is the only non-WorldTour event thus far.
"I had my rough ideas, but for instance, the Dauphine wasn't something that I expected to be doing," he said. "It was obviously a pretty big experience for me to get a call up for that. It wasn't in ideal circumstance because I had to pull out of California due to being unwell."
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