Hamilton attacked from the chase group with over 50 kilometres to go in an effort to bridge the gap to leader and eventual winner Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates) and Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), a move that proved ultimately unsuccessful but still saw his stock rise as he had to work to keep the peloton at bay to cross the line in third.
Following a second-place finish on Stage 12 of this year's Giro d'Italia, the 26-year-old's performance comes after two rousing stage wins by teammate and countryman Michael Storer, with the duo largely contributing to DSM's outstanding race so far alongside Stage 14 winner Romain Bardet.
Hamilton was rapt with the result, revealing he had to dig deep after launching his move from the chasers in order to assure he made it to the line third in El Barraco.
That was a tough day at the office,” Hamilton said after the finish. “Of course going for the win was the ultimate goal and the whole time I was kind of hoping the guys were hurting as much as me.
It was a bit of a weird day tactics wise because we had four guys in the group so no one else was really happy to work with us, so it was pretty much attacking from that group all day. No one was really working together which is fair enough so at 50 or 60 kilometres to go I went all in to see what happened and that was it.”
"You have to keep chipping away and you never know what can happen. I’m super happy with third.
"I gave it everything today and the peloton were coming really fast in the finish and if I wasn’t going for the win I wanted to make something from the day: a Grand Tour podium, I can’t be upset with that."
SBS commentator Matt Keenan also made mention of Hamilton's great ride in his Stage 15 wrap, backing him to keep getting stronger and stronger as his career continues.
"Who delivered? The guy in third!" Keenan said. "Chris Hamilton, that was a fantastic performance.
"He's on the way up in his career, he's had a second place finish on a stage at the Giro, he'll go into the rest day optimistic."
The Vuelta a Espana takes a rest day tonight before resuming tomorrow with Stage 16, a 180 kilometre flat course from Laredo to Santa Cruz de Bezana shaping as the last true sprint stage of the race. Watch the action live from 11:00pm AEST on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand, and 10:50pm AEST on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker.
