João Almeida remains convinced of his chances of overall victory in this year's Vuelta a España, and he is not the only one, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG team leader Tadej Pogačar sending Almeida messages of support during the race.
"We've talked a few times and told me the day before the stage of the Angliru I could win there," Almeida, who subsequently beat overall leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the summit of Spain's most legendary climb, told Marca in an interview.
Almeida is second overall and 48 seconds down on Vingegaard as the Vuelta enters its third and decisive week.
He admitted he is "tired, like everybody, but motivated. We've had two good weeks and now we're heading into the third."
As for when he might attack, Almeida said "the day that I've got the legs, that's the truth. The time trial [on stage 18] will be important for sure. Every day is really tough, but Saturday [Bola del Mundo summit finish] and Wednesday [Alto de el Morredero summit finish] will be the hardest in their last parts, and that's where you can establish the big differences. So we'll go day by day."
Almeida said that he was not overly concerned that Vingegaard could gain precious seconds in the 27.2km time trial around Valladolid.
"Not so much. There are a lot of factors that cannot be controlled and are relative depending on which time trial you do," Almeida suggested.
"I'm still doing good time trials and I hope to have a good one that day to do it the best possible, and we'll see how things work out after that."
He recognised, however, that he had not been able to do much work to prepare specifically for the Valladolid time trial, but as he put "It is what it is."
Almeida said he believed that Vingegaard was not in his best shape possible, pointing out that "if he had been, he'd have attacked me on the Angliru."
However, he also insisted that he wasn't in his best shape, either, "so we're both in a similar situation."
"Jonas has been superior to me up to now, he's won two Tours, lots of races and he's always been ahead," Almeida said. "I'm keeping my feet on the ground for now, and just trying to do the best I can."
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