Lucas Hamilton is a rider that many in the sport would know, but he shot to prominence as he trounced a quality field in the National Capital Tour queen stage, riding away from the pack on the final climb of the day, winning the stage by 37 seconds. He unfortunately crashed out on the next stage with the yellow jersey on his back, but impressed many with his climbing as a 19 year old against the seasoned professionals. He has recovered from his crash and spoke to me after training.
How did you come into cycling?
I started off as a family thing, my mum and dad encouraged my brother, sister and myself to join the cycling club, just for a bit of fun. We all showed a bit of potential, we never took it too seriously when we were young, but dad, who was a cyclist as a kid sort of understood and knew how to progress in the sport. That’s how we’ve gotten to where we are now.
You built that start into a really impressive junior career, what were your favourite results in that?
The Madison (national U/19 title), I don’t want to say it was a fluke (Lucas was a late addition after the scheduled rider had to withdraw), but for me personally it was special, knowing that track is definitely not my forte. To get a result there, it was great to come away with two medals from the track nationals, one of them gold.
You also won the road race titles at the U/19 nationals and the Oceania U/19s.
The nationals road race was a big deal, I’d had fair few results, and I was probably going in the favourite, but you just can’t take anything easily from a nationals. I think in years to come I’ll look back at that as my first real national championship, definitely one of my favourites, and the one I’m most proud of.
You were part of the Junior Mens Worlds team.
Honestly I didn’t really race. I went over injured, we thought it would go away and I trained on it, but it kept coming back. I then had to do two or three weeks of rehab off the bike, finally got back on for two weeks training… I wasn’t in super form, but then crashed out at the Worlds. It wasn’t a very enjoyable trip in that way, but I still got to go to the races and I learnt a lot about European racing. I was like a dog with a bone on its nose, I was itching to get out there and racing, and I’d love to go back over there.
You’ve been a part of the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) program for a few years now. How have they helped your development?
I’ve been on scholarship for two years, but I’ve been training with the VIS for a few years now. My brother was part of the program as well, and is a bit older than me, so I was hanging around before as well. The VIS are really good at helping you out on and off the bike, sometimes sport can be a little cut-throat, and the VIS are great if you want to get off the bike they support you in whatever you choose to do. I think that’s a big thing in sport, you need something to fall back on and the VIS do a lot of work helping that transition.
The support of your family and friends must also have been important in your junior career.
It’s the only reason I am where I am, because of my family and the people around me that support me. It’s lucky that I have a brother (Tom Hamilton) who is also high up in the sport, older than me and doing everything before me. I got to feed off and learn a lot from what he was doing. And obviously mum and dad, family and friends, if you didn’t have them you’d struggle to last.
The National Capital Tour (NCT) you took a big win on the queen stage, but then crashed out.
Going into the NCT the stage was a big goal, and if I ended up in the yellow jersey then that was a bonus. The only disappointing part about it was the fact that Bevin pulled out with a knee injury and I sort of felt that the best man wasn’t there. On Sunday I crashed out, but I’m really happy with what I did and I’m looking forward to the rest of the NRS.
What’s the next step for you this season?
Well the Tour of Tasmania is next, hopefully I can do a good result or take something away from Tassie. Grafton and Warnambool I’ll be using as experience to race those sort of longer races. In the NRS, you don’t get the opportunities at racing those distances often and it will good for me to learn how to conserve my energy, eat and drink. It’s a race of attrition, and you need to learn how to deal with that in race conditions. You can train at it, racing it is a totally different ball game.
In the long term you’re looking to go professional, what do you need to improve to get to that level?
I’d love to do this as a profession, obviously there’s a long way to go but it would be a dream of mine to do this as a career. My sprinting is a big thing that I want to work on, not to win bunch sprints, but coming to the race as part of a select group to be able to finish it off. There’s a big difference between finishing say 3rd and 10th at the U/23 nationals, so to improve my sprinting will make that difference. Learning how my body works; eating and drinking during races, I think that’s a thing lots of younger riders forget, especially in those longer races, and trying to learn to manage that will be important. It’s amazing how many people in cycling just work on what they’re good at, they never go off and work on what they struggle with. More strings to your bow, it can’t be a bad thing.
Why do you love cycling?
I love working towards a goal, I know that’s cliché, maybe the results won’t show but you know all the work and effort you’ve done to get to there and that’s very satisfying. I also love getting on my bike and just riding, I don’t really see myself doing anything else.
Final question, what’s one big race that you’d love to win?
Definitely the Tour de France. There’s a lot of great races, but the Tour is the big one.
I started off as a family thing, my mum and dad encouraged my brother, sister and myself to join the cycling club, just for a bit of fun. We all showed a bit of potential, we never took it too seriously when we were young, but dad, who was a cyclist as a kid sort of understood and knew how to progress in the sport. That’s how we’ve gotten to where we are now.
You built that start into a really impressive junior career, what were your favourite results in that?
The Madison (national U/19 title), I don’t want to say it was a fluke (Lucas was a late addition after the scheduled rider had to withdraw), but for me personally it was special, knowing that track is definitely not my forte. To get a result there, it was great to come away with two medals from the track nationals, one of them gold.
You also won the road race titles at the U/19 nationals and the Oceania U/19s.
The nationals road race was a big deal, I’d had fair few results, and I was probably going in the favourite, but you just can’t take anything easily from a nationals. I think in years to come I’ll look back at that as my first real national championship, definitely one of my favourites, and the one I’m most proud of.
You were part of the Junior Mens Worlds team.
Honestly I didn’t really race. I went over injured, we thought it would go away and I trained on it, but it kept coming back. I then had to do two or three weeks of rehab off the bike, finally got back on for two weeks training… I wasn’t in super form, but then crashed out at the Worlds. It wasn’t a very enjoyable trip in that way, but I still got to go to the races and I learnt a lot about European racing. I was like a dog with a bone on its nose, I was itching to get out there and racing, and I’d love to go back over there.
You’ve been a part of the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) program for a few years now. How have they helped your development?
I’ve been on scholarship for two years, but I’ve been training with the VIS for a few years now. My brother was part of the program as well, and is a bit older than me, so I was hanging around before as well. The VIS are really good at helping you out on and off the bike, sometimes sport can be a little cut-throat, and the VIS are great if you want to get off the bike they support you in whatever you choose to do. I think that’s a big thing in sport, you need something to fall back on and the VIS do a lot of work helping that transition.
The support of your family and friends must also have been important in your junior career.
It’s the only reason I am where I am, because of my family and the people around me that support me. It’s lucky that I have a brother (Tom Hamilton) who is also high up in the sport, older than me and doing everything before me. I got to feed off and learn a lot from what he was doing. And obviously mum and dad, family and friends, if you didn’t have them you’d struggle to last.
The National Capital Tour (NCT) you took a big win on the queen stage, but then crashed out.
Going into the NCT the stage was a big goal, and if I ended up in the yellow jersey then that was a bonus. The only disappointing part about it was the fact that Bevin pulled out with a knee injury and I sort of felt that the best man wasn’t there. On Sunday I crashed out, but I’m really happy with what I did and I’m looking forward to the rest of the NRS.
What’s the next step for you this season?
Well the Tour of Tasmania is next, hopefully I can do a good result or take something away from Tassie. Grafton and Warnambool I’ll be using as experience to race those sort of longer races. In the NRS, you don’t get the opportunities at racing those distances often and it will good for me to learn how to conserve my energy, eat and drink. It’s a race of attrition, and you need to learn how to deal with that in race conditions. You can train at it, racing it is a totally different ball game.
In the long term you’re looking to go professional, what do you need to improve to get to that level?
I’d love to do this as a profession, obviously there’s a long way to go but it would be a dream of mine to do this as a career. My sprinting is a big thing that I want to work on, not to win bunch sprints, but coming to the race as part of a select group to be able to finish it off. There’s a big difference between finishing say 3rd and 10th at the U/23 nationals, so to improve my sprinting will make that difference. Learning how my body works; eating and drinking during races, I think that’s a thing lots of younger riders forget, especially in those longer races, and trying to learn to manage that will be important. It’s amazing how many people in cycling just work on what they’re good at, they never go off and work on what they struggle with. More strings to your bow, it can’t be a bad thing.
Why do you love cycling?
I love working towards a goal, I know that’s cliché, maybe the results won’t show but you know all the work and effort you’ve done to get to there and that’s very satisfying. I also love getting on my bike and just riding, I don’t really see myself doing anything else.
Final question, what’s one big race that you’d love to win?
Definitely the Tour de France. There’s a lot of great races, but the Tour is the big one.