Welcome to live coverage of stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana, a rolling 187km ride from Santander to Fuente De, where the stage will conclude with a gradual Cat.2 slope to the finish.

It's official: Contador is the new race leader, 1:52 ahead of Valverde and 2:28 ahead of Rodriguez, who drops to third place after a terrible day.

The time is ticking away for Rodriguez... the overnight race leader still has one Saxo Bank rider on his wheel as he approaches the finish line, and concedes a huge 2:37. Behind him, Hernandez smiles and clenches his fist... what an image.

Valverde out sprints Henao to take second place and an eight-second time bonus.

What a victory for Alberto Contador, who solos over the line to win the stage and take the red jersey!

Contador is looking over his shoulder. He knows Valverde is closing in... but he should hold on.

Sky's Sergio Henao is leading the chase as Valverde puts in a dig. One kilometre to go. The gap is 14 seconds.

This final climb has been long and gradual: it actually looked to be flat, but the road has been edging uphill ever so slightly for the past 15km. Contador is now out of his saddle. He knows the Valverde group are in pursuit.

The gap is tumbling for Contador vis-a-vis the chasing group. He'll still be in red tonight, but the stage win is not a certainty - Valverde is getting stronger and stronger, and is just 15 seconds back.

Contador is on nearing the final part of this Cat.2 Fuenta De climb. It's been uphill for the past 15 kilometres, but just steadily so. He has just 30 seconds on the Valverde chasing group now.

Joaquim Rodriguez has ridden a near-flawless Vuelta until today, when it has just imploded. He was caught out and now has no team-mates. To add insult to injury, every time he turns round he can see Saxo Bank team-mates Hernandez and Paulinho.

Contador only has a minute on the Valverde group - but he won't be too concerned about that. It's the split to Rodriguez that is important, and that's 2:48.

The Valverde trio has caught the remnants of the initial break - including the likes of Henao, Verdugo, Mondory and that man Tiralongo.

Valverde's group is down to a trio: him, Intxausti and Geniez of Argos Shimano.

Contador nears the start of the climb. He has 1:21 on the Valverde chasing group and 2:30 on the Rodriguez group, which includes his Saxo team-mates Hernandez and Paulinho.

Quintana sits up after leading Valverde onto the wheel of some of the escapees - including another Movistar man, Intxausti. The green jersey is now trying to put Rodriguez under as much pressure as possible. He's targetting second place on GC now.

Contador passes under the 10km-to-go banner. He has 1:40 over Valverde and Quintana, and more importantly, he has 2:25 over Rodriguez.

Saxo Bank have put on a masterclass today: both Contador's rivals have Saxo riders sandbagging them as they try and chase back towards the white jersey.

Contador is time trialing towards the start of this final climb. Valverde has Quintana with him, band they have dropped Rodriguez!

Contador attacks! The Spaniard is going solo now: he's jumped clear of Tiralongo and rides on his own towards glory. Meanwhile, red jersey Rodriguez is 2:20 down and has Saxo's Hernandez sandbagging on his back wheel.

There it is: the Saxo Bank-Tinkoff car handing out a new bidon to Paolo Tiralongo. This could well be the winning move of the Vuelta - and that old friendship is proving so important.