This year's tour featured a who's who of Australian cycling including 2014 Australian Road Champion and Tour Down Under winner Simon Gerrans, along with current World U23 Road Champion Matej Mohoric and numerous other Australian and overseas national champions.

Hamilton more than mixed it with the best, riding with the Australian Under-23 National team. Along with winning the KOTM jersey, the 20-year-old finished 27th overall out of 86 competitors and sixth in the under-23 classification.

While Hamilton has always been a strong mountain rider, he said he wasn't expecting to finish the top cyclist in a world class field.

"I didn't go into the race expecting to come out with that jersey, but it was a nice surprise," he said.

"It is not necessarily the biggest highlight of my cycling career, but it is definitely reassuring to know I am on the right track."

Hamilton got his campaign off to the best possible start in stage one of the Herald Sun Tour, topping the King of the Mountain classification after a gruelling ride from Geelong to Ballarat which tackled a number of tough hills as the race progressed through Buninyong.

Hamilton said the first day took a lot out of him.

"The toughest stage for me was the second day," he said.

"I was pretty tired from my efforts the day before and it was really hot coming into Bendigo.

"I just pushed through it and it turned out to be a very rewarding stage."

The mountains again proved no barrier for the Ararat cyclist, with Hamilton finishing second in the first climb before leading the way in climb two and collecting major points.

The impressive stage saw him crack into the tour's top 30 and he managed to hold that position for the remainder of the tour.

Stage three saw the peloton make its way from the Mitchelton Winery to Nagambie for a total of 156.1km and while Hamilton didn't feature in the points in either of the climbs along that stage, his efforts from the previous two days were enough to secure the King of the Mountain leaders jersey.

Hamilton won the general classification easily with 52 points, 36 ahead of his nearest rival.

This is the first time the Jayco-Herald Sun Tour has been recognised as an International Cycling Union (UCI) road race and as such attracts UCI points which contribute to world rankings.

Hamilton said he hopes his strong performance can open up a few doors in the cycling world.

"At the minute I have been invited to go to Canberra for three weeks beginning at the end of February for national training," he said.

“That is my next focus and what happens after that happens.

“At this stage the biggest race of the year has already been ridden (Australian National Road Championships), so the rest of the year is a bonus but I won’t be complacent and will be still training hard and making the most of any opportunity.”

Hamilton is a two-time winner of the Ararat Classic Cycling Carnival’s 50-lap Aces race.

He missed out on competing at the event this year due to his commitments riding in the tour, however he said he was thrilled to see the title go to his younger brother Lucas.

“I was really happy when I heard that Lucas had won, but I was also a bit devastated that I didn’t get to ride in Ararat because it is always such a good feeling to compete in front of a home crowd,” he said.

“It was nice to see Lucas do so well because he was a bit unlucky in the race last year and I was able to reap the rewards a bit.”