Chris Hamilton started the Vuelta a Espana simply aiming to finish his maiden Grand Tour three weeks later in Madrid. Following a strong team time trial in which Sunweb finished third, it was a tumultuous opening week as a virus passed through the team and Warren Barguil was sent home from the race.
Having survived the baptism of fire, Hamilton knew he could make it to Madrid after stage 10 to Elpozo Alimentacion where he finished 52nd.
"I think I the day I knew I'd be ok was probably after stage 10. I wasn't sure how'd I handle it," Hamilton told Cyclingnews. "Obviously, you do get more tired every day but I'd never done anything longer than seven consecutive days racing before. I had a pretty good stage on stage 10 and then I thought if I can do that this far into the race I think I'll be ok. For sure you have bad days but it is good to know you can have good days as well so far into a race."
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Making sure to "do all the one percenters" throughout the race to maximise recovery, Hamilton found his body adapting to three-week racing. Across the 20 individual stages, the 22-year-old first-year neo-pro only had four results inside the top-100, but three of those came in the final week. Including the penultimate stage to the Alto de L'Angliru and final day circuit around Madrid.
"Everyone said it was a hard Vuelta in comparison to other years and I think especially as every day was such a fight for the breakaway, quite often it would take an hour for a group to get up the road," he said. "It was constant attacking. There were never any easy days so I think I take comfort in that if I can survive this one, I should be able to handle the rest."
Team Sunweb's decision to remove Barguil from the race for not following team orders and then issuing a statement alerting all to the fact raised several eyebrows. With the Frenchman having enjoyed a breakthrough Tour de France with two stage wins and the mountains jersey, the move looked like weakening the team's bid for the GC. However, the team stayed true to its values and finished in Madrid with Wilco Kelderman in fourth place overall having occupied a podium position for the majority of the final week.
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