Warren Barguil continued his impressive showing in his debut grand tour when the 21-year old youngster won his second stage of the Vuelta a Espana. Having been dropped from yesterday's break, he had actually planned to take an easy day but couldn't resist his great legs.

When Warren Barguil lined up at the start line in Galicia two weeks ago, his main objective was to complete his first grand tour in what he been an injury-plagued debut season. The 21-year-old would never have believed that he would find himself with two stage wins when 5 stages still remained.

Nonetheless, Barguil took his second stage win today - just three days after his first triumph - when he rode with great maturity in a hectic race finale. Having originally missed the 9-rider breakaway, he attacked on the penultimate climb before finally getting across on the subsequent descent.

Having also been in the break yesterday where he was dropped by eventual stage winner Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) on the Port de Bales, he had actually planned to have an easy day.

"What a day again," he exclaimed. "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."

Barguil escaped on his own on the final climb but was joined by Rigoberto Uran (Sky) just 1km from the line. He didn't panicked when Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp) and Dominik Nerz (BMC) got across 300m from the line and stayed safely on Uran's wheel. He finally beat the Colombian in a photo finish.

"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 explained. "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."

Coach Rudi Kemna confirmed the initial plan.

"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," he said. "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."

Argos-Shimano has had an impressive season, winning stages in all three grand tours with young riders John Degenkolb, Marcel Kittel and Barguil. One of the team's missions is to facilitate the development of young talents and so general manager Iwan Spekenbrink can't get his arms down.

"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 said 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."

Like the rest of the peloton, Barguil will take a well-earned rest day tomorrow before the racing resumes on Wednesday with a sprint stage that may suit his teammates Nikias Arndt and Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg.

Starting at 15.00 CEST you can follow that stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.