Stephen Bassett (Human Powered Health) had a hard time deciding if his pint glass was half full or half empty at the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta del Sol on Wednesday after he came painfully close to ending what he described as "a long string of second places in important races."
Part of a day-long break of eight on an arduous 200-kilometre stage, the 26-year-old from Knoxville, Tennessee was well-positioned and looking strong as the road reared relentlessly upwards to the finish in Iznajar.
But after coming around late-attacker Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) in the closing 200 metres, Bassett found that Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise racer Rune Herregodts had closed the gap and after the two had a shoulder-to-shoulder collision, Herregodts emerged ahead.
Bassett was adamant there was "no foul play," as he told a small group of reporters on the line, and that "the strongest rider won today." But while pleased to have come so near to a win, he couldn't help rueing another near-miss, either.
"We knew there was the potential for a break to go with the GC teams being not super-motivated because they don't need to win the first stage," he explained.
"We went at almost kilometre zero and we were pretty attentive within the team. We had a few guys designated to try to get into the break. We have Ben King and Chad Haga, two guys who are quite experienced. I was able to key off them, and I was able to slot in pretty easily."
Having already competed in the Valenciana stage race and then three one-day races in Murcia and Andalucia this season, Bassett was feeling in good shape. And as he said, the breakaway was well organised, building up a lead of nearly 15 minutes at one point, and only slowing dropping as the kilometres ticked by.
"That's the modern thing, you feather it for 100km, then you start driving. So it all went pretty much according to plan," he reflected.
"It was pretty co-operative, then there was some attacking on the last climb" - the third category, uneven and draggy Puerto de la Parrilla - "but there was a lot of headwind, so there really wasn't an opportunity for anyone to get away there. It was coming down to the sprint."
Bassett and the rest of the breakaway had a tough ask taking on two visibly strong Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise racers in the break, Lindsay de Vylder and Herregodts.
But while he was still very much in contention as the kilometre-long climb reached its steepest point close to the finish, Herregodts proved just too strong for him, Bassett said, and the collision had been equally problematic for both.
"There was just some bumping into each other and we were both about to fall over. Luckily there was no harm, no foul," he insisted. "He was definitely the strongest guy today."
Bassett may have had his share of near-misses but said, "it's a pretty big step in the process that I've been trying to pop off here in Europe for three years, so I am working really hard, so I am glad to be able to put one together."
While he says his physical build is not the right kind to think of defending a second-place overall - "I am pretty large, getting up hills in a breakaway is one thing, getting up hills against the GC riders is something else" - but his move continues an excellent start to the year for Human Powered Health.
The Pro Conti squad have already secured a King of the Mountains classification in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana with Ben King and a string of top results in the Tour of Antalya last week.
"We've kind of established ourselves as a breakaway team," Bassett said. "The roster we have here, we're running a bit thin due to different injuries and illnesses, but that's our niche.
"We know we have a really fast bike. We have a really good dynamic and we know how to do that. The window of opportunity is so narrow at this high level of racing so this is the kind of sliver we have to fight for."
