Lucas Hamilton has climbed his way to a fourth-place stage finish and rose to sixth overall in the Tour de Suisse.
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The tour made its way into the mountains in the 175.2km stage five, offering the former Ararat resident a chance to shine.
Chaves was ultimately chased down by the pack, with Richard Carapaz taking both a stage win and the general classification lead.
Hamilton finished just 39 seconds behind and earned the white jersey as the leader of the young rider's classification.
"It was one of the first hot races of the year and I was struggling with cramps a bit in the final, but we saw how good Esteban was going on the second to last climb," Hamilton said.
"The wind didn't really play into his favour in the break so unfortunately we lost a bit of time to the lead, to win the race overall but there's still a lot of climbing and racing ahead."
Hamilton sits 1'31" behind Chaves in the fight for the yellow jersey.
The peloton heads further into the Alpine region in stage six overnight on Friday (AEST). The 130-kilometre leg starts in Andermatt, 1,444 metres above sea level.
An individual timetrial up and down the Oberalp Pass awaits in stage seven. The climb is 9.5 kilometres long with an average gradient of 6.5%, while the route adds up to 23.2 kilometres.
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