Optimists live longer than pessimists, as the Belgian saying has it, and João Almeida opted to take away more positives than negative from his second place overall at the Vuelta a España despite the disappointment of not being able to take the fight to race leader Jonas Vingegaard in the final week.
The 27-year-old has been suffering from an influenza virus and, as he told reporters after stage 20, that illness had "limited me a lot".
