Hamilton finished a minute behind winner Jhonatan Restrepo at the conclusion of the eight day event in Adelaide and the surrounding areas.

Hamilton said he was happy with his performance at the South Australian event.

"You cannot be too disappointed with how it panned out,” he said.

“Obviously there is a couple of areas I would have liked to improve on but there is still a lot of positives to come out of the race.”

Hamilton said he is continuing to learn each time he competes at these types of events.

"That is the biggest thing about racing the Tour Down Under,” he said.

“You want to go in with ambitions to get results but if you learn things, then that can be more important for the future.”

Cyclists had to battle heat for most of the race which did not bother Hamilton.

He raced in 37-degree Celsius heat at the national championships and said it was an advantage to the Australian riders.

"With the Europeans coming across from their winter, it definitely gave us a bit of help,” he said.

His team also won the overall team classification honours with three of the top five young riders part of the UniSA team.

Hamilton returned to Melbourne on Monday ahead of the Towards Zero criterium race in Melbourne on Thursday.

Hamilton will use that as a warm-up for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race at the weekend.

The 20-year-old has had a full schedule this month but said his body is feeling good ahead of another busy period of racing.

"I have not been unwell or anything, so no complaints there,” he said.

“I have still got the Herald Sun Tour to do after the Cadel Evans race, so I just have to be smart about it.

“Now I have a couple of recovery days and will rest up now before getting back on the bike again.”

The road race along the great ocean road will favour Hamilton’s style but will face tough competition with the field attracting world class cyclists from around the world.

The 174-kilometre event is on Sunday with Victoria’s premier cycling event being staged around Victoria from February 1-4.