Warren Barguil (Argos-Shimano) took his first professional victory on the biggest scene of them all when the young Frenchman won today's 13th stage of the Vuelta a Espana. Having made it into the decisive 10-rider break, he kept his calm in the hectic finale, launched a well-timed attack 1km from the line and held off his former companions all the way to the line, finishing 7 seconds ahead of Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) and Bauke Mollema (Belkin).

On Monday, Warren Barguil's first grand tour was left in tatters when a crash in the neutral zone left him with a wounded knee. With tears in his eyes and surrounded by teammates Johannes Fröhlinger and Thierry Hupond, he made it to the finish but his GC aspirations had all been crushed.

Four days later Barguil finds himself in a completely opposite situation. Having lost plenty of time, the young Frenchman had set his sights on stage wins and he exploited his first opportunity to take his first professional win. On a fast and hectic day in Catalonia, he made it into the decisive breakaway and survived the brutally steep Alto del Rat Penat.

In an aggressive finale, he made a well-timed attack 1km from the finish and he more seasoned companions all looked at each other. When Bauke Mollema finally organized a chase, it was too late and Barguil held off his rivals on the uphill finish. Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) beat Mollema in the sprint for 2nd.

Maximilano Richeze (Lampre) led the peloton across the line with a time loss of 2.43 on a day where the race favourites tried to save energy for tomorrow's first Pyrenean stage. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) finished safely in the group and defended his 31-second lead over Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff).

He takes that lead into tomorrow's 155,7km stage. The stage takes the riders up the Port de Envalira - the highest points of this year's Vuelta - and finished with the category 1 climb Collada de la Gallina in Andorra. A big showdown between the race favourites is expected on a stage that has the potential to produce a major shake-up of the GC.

Starting at 15.00 CEST you can follow the drama on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

An unpredictable stage

The 169km 13th stage was an unpredictable affair. The brutally steep Alto del Rat Penat was located just 50km from the finish, ruling out most of the sprinters, and an 400m uphill finish made things even more complicated. A breakaway win was expected but it could also be a day for the puncheurs.

As expected, the stage was raced at a furious pace. Early on, a 25-rider group escaped. It contained no dangerous GC riders with Bauke Mollema being the biggest name but Astana were unwilling to allow such a big group any leeway and brought it back at the 7km mark.

Lastras abandons

A big crash happened when the peloton approached the day's first climb. Unfortunately, Pablo Lastras (Movistar) was unable to continue. Due to the tumble, the peloton split into three groups with Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) being caught in the second one. However, the peloton decided to take it easy and everything came back together.

The attacking resumed on the descent when an 18-rider group got clear. Once again, it was, however, brought back together. Instead, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Mollema, Jan Barta (NetApp-Endura), Mitchell Docker (Orica), Yannick Eijssen (BMC) and Dennis Vanendert (Lotto) got a gap.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step start to chase

OPQS had missed the move and the Belgian team started a furious chase. 7 riders bridged across but moments later, it was once again back together.

The next to try were Barta and Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg (Argos). Boasson Hagen set off in pursuit but the three escapees were all reeled in at the 70km mark.

The decisive group is formed

Mollema, Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural), Warren Barguil (Argos), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) and Iker Camano (NetApp) were the next to try their hand. They were joined by Benat Intxausti (Movistar), Mikael Cherel (Ag2r), Ivan Santaromita (BMC), Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural), Jerome Coppel (Cofidis), Michele Scarponi (Lampre), Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEDGE), Vasil Kiriyenka (Sky), Xabier Zandio (Sky) and Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil) to form an 18-rider group. Finally, the elastic snapped and they were allowed to build up a 3-minute gap while Astana controlled proceedings in the peloton.

Despite Meier's presence in the break, Orica-GreenEDGE decided to work for Michael Matthews and so they started to chase, bringing the gap down to 2.30. However, they were blown away by Katusha as soon as they hit the Alto del Rat Penat, Giampaolo Caruso reducing the main group to just around 20 riders.

The front group splits up

Up ahead, Piedra, Camano and Cherel fell off the pace and moments later Scarponi upped the tempo. No one was able to keep up with the Lampre rider who rode incredibly weel up the climb to crest the summit with a 30-second gap on a 9-rider chase group consisting of Coppel, Mollema, Nocentini, Intxausti, Txurruka, Martinez, Barguil, Santaromita and Zandio.

In the peloton, Caruso's fierce pace had drawn clear a trio consisting of the Italian, his team captain Joaquim Rodriguez and Roche. Radioshack started to chase and Robert Kiserlovski drew things back together.

The peloton slows down

The main group picked up Cherel, Piedra, Camano and Meersman while Caruso kept a hard pace on the front. As soon as they crested the summit, Katusha stopped their pace-setting, leaving it to Janez Brajkovic (Astana) to set a gentle pace. That allowed numerous riders to rejoin the peloton which radually grew back up to more than 100 riders.

Scarponi decided to wait for his chasers and the 10-rider group managed to build up a gap that almost reached 4 minutes while Andrey Zeits and Paolo Tiralongo controlled the peloton.

Cannondale up the pace

With 28km to go, Cannondale decided that it was time to protect Ivan Basso's position on GC and so Cameron Wurf started to stabilize the gap, the Australian making sure that Scarponi did not get too much of an advantage. They picked up Vanendert, Marczynski, Kiryienka and Meier and so only the 10-rider group was left in the front.

A few kilometres further up the road, FDJ decided that they wanted to bring it back to a sprint for Anthony Roux. During the next 10km, Alexandre Geniez, Jussi Veikkanen and Cedric Pineau did their best and brought the gap down to just 2.10.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step back in action

With 13km to go, they gave up, leaving it to Wurf to roll along at a steady pace. However, Omega Pharma-Quick Step still believed that Meersman could win the stage and so Tony Martin and Kristof Vandewalle hit the front, bringing the back down from 2.50 to 2.00.

With 8km to go, Intxausti crashed in a turn. He quickly remounted but never caught his former companions. The Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders hit the deck in the exact same turn and this caused the peloton to slow down, the GC riders content to roll along at a gentle pace.

The break splits up

It was now clear that the escapees would decide the win. With 7km to go, Martinez attacked and he was joined by Coppel. For a moment, they were chased by Mollema, Zandio and Txurruka but the 7 chasers came back together.

With 5km to go, Scarponi used a lot of energy to bridge across but it was all in vain. With 2km to go, it was back together and an acceleration by Martinez had little success.

The decisive move

Coppel was the next to try his hand. He was joined by Zandio, Barguil and Nocentini but just as they passed the flamme rouge, Santaromita and Mollema brought it back together.

Barguil used the hesitation to launch his move and while his rivals looked at each other, he opened up a big gap. Mollema tried to launch a chase but it was too late and Barguil took a beautiful solo win.

Result:

1. Warren Barguil 4.00.13

2. Rinaldo Nocentini +0.07

3. Bauke Mollema

4. Ivan Santaromita

5. Xabier Zandio

6. Amets Txurruka

7. Michele Scarponi

8. Egoi Martinez

9. Jerome Coppel +0.24

10. Benat Intxausti +2.34

General classification:

1. Vincenzo Nibali 49.29.02

2. Nicolas Roche +0.31

3. Alejandro Valverde +0.46

4. Chris Horner

5. Joaquim Rodriguez +2.33

6. Domenico Pozzovivo +2.44

7. Ivan Basso +2.52

8. Thibaut Pinot +3.35

9. Rafal Majka +3.46

10. Daniel Moreno +3.56

Points classification:

1. Daniel Moreno 98

2. Alejandro Valverde 92

3. Nicolas Roche 89

4. Philippe Gilbert 64

5. Fabian Cancellara 61

Mountains classification:

1. Chris Horner 18

2. Nicolas Roche 15

3. Diego Ulissi 13

4. Nicolas Edet 13

5. Leopold König 12

Combination classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 7

2. Chris Horner 12

3. Alejandro Valverde 14

4. Daniel Moreno 17

5. Vincenzo Nibali 22

Teams classification:

1. Astana 147.40.02

2. Saxo-Tinkoff +0.04

3. Movistar +2.29

4. Euskaltel +5.59

5. Katusha +11.28