Vuelta a España stage 11 – Live coverage

Guillaume Martin aiming to stay in GC battle at Vuelta a España

Frenchman continues to eye stage win after moving up to second overall on stage 10

Two non-starters today. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) and Alex Aranburu (Astana-Premier Tech) have left the race. The Belgian has a fever and the Spaniard was injured in a crash yesterday.

The riders have set off from the start and are rolling through the neutral zone.

There’s no doubt that Primož Roglič will be looking to put more time between him and his main rivals, though it’s extremely unlikely that he will be taking back the red jersey today given that he’s 2:17 down on race leader Odd Christian Eiking and 1:19 down on second-placed man Guillaume Martin. 

A look at the map of today’s stage…

The finish was a regular fixture of the race in the early 2010s, featuring in 2010, 2011 and 2013 as Igor Antón, Joaquin Rodríguez and Daniel Moreno took stage victories.

Time gaps aren’t usually very big at the top of the climb. In 2013, the top five were separated by five seconds. A total of 14, 16 and 16 riders have finished within 20 seconds of the winner on each stage.

Today’s stage is up and down all day, though there’s only one categorised climb on the route – the Puerto de Locubín (8.8km at 5 per cent) at eight kilometres from the finish.

The finish, though, is a real challenge comparable to the Mur de Huy…

The riders are currently signing on ahead of the start of the stage, which is in just over 15 minutes.

Today’s stage is the shortest road stage of the race at 133.6 kilometres, taking the riders from Antequera to Valdepeñas de Jaén as the race heads inland from the south of Spain.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 11 of the Vuelta a España.