Stage 5: Stirling -> Stirling
The last day of racing at the Tour Down Under saw a good pace set throughout the stage as they tackled the rolling and hilly circuit around Stirling. Team Picnic PostNL, who were nursing some wounds from crashes in the previous days, set out with the main goal of the day to keep Chris Hamilton in position for the finale and try to move up on GC. Riding well as a squad throughout the afternoon they did just that and on the uphill drag to the line Hamilton finished in the first part of the peloton. With some extra gaps behind him, it meant the team moved up to finish the race in 13th place overall with Hamilton.
Hamilton expressed: “I’m happy with how we raced as a team here and for me to finish the week off with 13th in GC, only a few seconds off the top ten, is a result I’m happy with. Obviously a top ten would have been really good but I’m satisfied with how it went, especially because I couldn’t race the event last year after a broken collarbone, so I was relaly motivated for it. The guys did a good job looking after me for the final stage, and we knew that the finish was going to be important to be in position to maybe pick up a few seconds and places on GC; and that’s what happened, so it was a successful finish to the week.”