Warren Barguil was over the moon with his second stage victory in La Vuelta a España today when he won the sixteenth stage in a thrilling sprint atop the mountain finish to Formigal.
Barguil attacked into the final 10km and built up a solo lead of 30 seconds before being joined by Rigoberto Uran (Sky Pro Cycling) with just over a kilometre to go.
From then on, he kept his cool and waited for the final 150m before launching his sprint, pulling up alongside, and then pipping Uran to the finish line to take his second stage win of the race.
Warren took his breakthrough stage win just days ago on stage 13, his first professional win of his career, in what is his first Grand Tour, and he showed today that he's still got the winning instinct.
"What a day again," said a shocked Warren to the Argos Shimano Press Office. "This morning we decided to take it easy as I did not felt very good yesterday, but my legs started feeling really good during the stage and I moved into to position to go with the break. Then on the final climb I decided to give it a try alone.
"Actually, I was not sure that the break was going to make it to the finish, so I attacked and on the way, with less than one kilometre to go, Uran joined me. He tried to attack me but I was still strong enough for the sprint and I knew I could have a chance to beat him in the sprint. It is great to beat such a strong rider, I am surprised and again over the moon with my second victory."
"We made the plan for the other guys to try to get into the break as Warren wasn't felling too good and as recovery is so important here he took it easy in the first part of the race," said coach Rudi Kemna.
"But during the race he felt really good and when everything came back together he said he was fresh enough to go on the attack. He was able to follow the group that went in the second half of the race and what he did was very impressive."
General Manager, Iwan Spekenbrink, added: "Warren has shown once again that he is an exceptional talent, and we are glad to help him develop with the aid of our experts and performance staff. He is a great example of our team's philosophy, to work with young talents and help them to develop using our way of working. Warren is just 21-years-old and is an important part of the future of our team."