Deceuninck-QuickStep's Joao Almeida moved up one place in the individual time trial of the 2020 Giro d'Italia to fourth overall.

Almeida finished second behind time trial world champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) in the time trial test on the opening stage of the Giro in Palermo on October 3 and took the pink leader's jersey two days later on stage 3 to Mount Etna He won.

On stage 18, Jai Hindley won ahead of overall Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), with Hindley's Sunweb teammate Wilco Kelderman temporarily taking the leader's jersey.

"I'm happy beyond words," Almeida said in a team press release Sunday.

"It's something I never dreamed of, my goal three weeks ago was to finish in the top 10, so to finish fourth on GC in this beautiful race just blows my mind."

"This would not have been possible without the help of my Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates and staff. They always brought a great "Wolfpack" spirit to the table.

Ganna won again in the final time trial of the race in Milan on Sunday, but Almeida finished fourth, 41 seconds behind the Italian, swapping places with Pero Bilbao of Bahrain McLaren, who dropped to fifth overall.

Almeida was still with the American under-23 development team Hagens Berman Axion (Geoghegan Hart is also an alumnus of this team) at the time of last season, but this year he moved to the Belgian WorldTour team Detuninck-Quick Step He has since integrated well into the team and finished the year with an impressive performance in the Giro.

"I discovered a lot about myself here [at the Giro]," he said. I pushed myself mentally and gave it my all every time." The day I grabbed the maglia rosa in Etna was my best memory.

"I'm still young and we'll see what the future holds, but all I can say now is that I hope to wear this iconic jersey again one day," Almeida said.