Welcome to live coverage of stage six of the Vuelta a Espana, a rolling 175.5km ride which is concluded with two Cat.3 climbs including the punchy uphill finish at Jaca in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

The gap has just dropped below three minutes for the five leaders. The average speed for the first hour of racing today was 43.5km/h.

The final rider in this break is Dutchman Joost van Leijen of Lotto Belisol. The 28 year old joined the Belgian team last year after two seasons at Vacansoleil-DCM. He has no wins to his name this season but in 2011 he won a stage in the Tour de Wallonie and in 2007 he won the overall and a stage in the Tour of Slovakia. This is van Leijen's debut in the Vuelta.

There are two more Dutchmen in this group. Martijn Maaskant joined Garmin from Rabobank back in 2008 after a break-through season that saw him notch five UCI wins. The 29 year old has not enjoyed any wins since then - although he finished 4th in Paris-Roubaix in 2008 and 4th in the Tour of Flanders a year later. This is Maaskant's second appearance in the Vuelta.

Belgian Kristof Vandewalle is riding his second Vuelta a Espana and is still on the hunt for his first stage win in a Grand Tour. the 27-year-old Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider is the current Belgian time trial champion.

Dutchman Pieter Weening is racing his fourth Vuelta but his first since 2009. The Spanish three-week race is the only Grand Tour in which the 31-year-old Orica-GreenEdge rider has not picked up a win: while at Rabobank, Weening won stages on the Tour (2005) and the Giro (2011). Weening wore the pink jersey for four days in last year's Giro and this year he finished 10th in the Tour of California. He has yet to notch a win since joining GreenEdge in the close season.

The best known of the five escapees is Thomas De Gendt of Vacansoleil-DCM. The 25-year-old Belgian had a breakthrough year in 2011 when he won stages on Paris-Nice and the Tour de Suisse. This year he took another victory in Paris-Nice and then underlined his Grand Tour credentials with an expert solo win atop the Stelvio in the Giro - a move which secured him the third spot on the podium in Milan. De Gendt has lost time in both of the summit finishes in this Vuelta and is 7:22 down on GC.

Katusha are controlling the pace on the front of the pack and not giving this break too much headway. None of the five riders are a treat on GC, but Katusha also want the stage win today for their leader Joaquim Rodriguez or, failing that, Dani Moreno. 3:22 is the latest check. Time to look at the five leading riders a bit more closely...

The lead is 3:16 for the escapees. Jan Ulrich, who famously waited for Lance Armstrong when he crashed on the Tourmalet, has chipped in with his two cents regarding the Valverde-Sky incident a few days ago. "Personally, I would have slowed, since it was a situation which wouldn't really have helped me - I want to measure myself against my opponents and not profit from their bad luck. I understand Valverde's anger - Sky should not have kept going," he told Eurosport.

The riders are crossing the barran Bardenas Reales, a natural semi-desert that stretches south-east of Navarre. The gap is still just over the three-minute mark for the five escapees. This morning Alberto Contador said: "Today's stage will not have a big impact on the general classification." The race could be lost today, however, should one of the main favourites have a bad ride and lose time.

With three Dutchmen and two Flemish-speaking Belgians, there certainly won't be any communication issues in today's five-man break.

The gap is up to three minutes for the leading quintet. "Today's stage will be agreeable but demanding," said Alejandro Valverde at the start. "I hope to repeat my performance at Arrate," he added, referring to his stage three victory a few days ago.

Red jersey Joaquim Rodriguez is one of the big favourites for the stage win today. "I have made a mark in my race manual against today's stage because I intend to win it," the Katusha rider said this morning at the start.

The five leaders - Dutchmen Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge), Martijn Maaskant (Garmin-Sharp), and Joost van Leijen (Lotto Belisol) and Belgians Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Kristof Vandewalle (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - now have 2:08 over the peloton and are combining well. The temperature is up to 33 degrees Celsius.

The gap for the five leaders is now well over a minute so it looks like this is the day's break. The dangerman is clearly Thomas De Gendt, who won magnificently atop the Stelvio from a break in the Giro. Given the time he's lost so far in the Vuelta (the Belgian is a huge 7:22 in arrears) he would need a similar kind of ride if he wants to have any say on the top ten in Spain.

The five leaders are joined by another rider, Belgian Kristof Vandewalle of Omega Pharma-QuickStep. In fact, no sooner as he arrives, Zeits drops back to the peloton. The gap is pretty small at the moment.

Five riders have managed to break clear: a trio of Dutchmen - Pieter Weening (GreenEdge), Martijn Maaskant (Garmin-Sharp), Joost van Leijen (Lotto Belisol) - as well as Belgian Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Kazakh Andrey Zeits (Astana).

While the final climb to the fort is only 3.8km long with an average gradient of 5.4% there are some very steep ramps in the final series of 13 hairpin bends - we're talking leg-sapping gradients up to 14%. All in all, it's the kind of finish that red jersey Joaquim Rodriguez loves - and after the Spaniard lost out to Alejandro Valverde in stage three at Arrate he'll certainly be keen to take the win today.

Five riders try to break clear of the peloton but they are swiftly reeled in. All the drama in today's stage comes near the finish, where we have the Cat.1 Puerto de Oroel followed by the Cat.1 Fuerte del Rapitan climb above the town of Jaca for the finale. It's basically a steep and winding track that runs up to the Rapitan Fort above Jaca and it's never been used before in the Vuelta. It's an irregular gradient with some steep sections, some flat parts and 13 hairpin bends in the final 3km.

They're off! It's a hot day in northern Spain with the temperature currently just under 30 degrees Celsius.

There are no overnight withdrawals to report so we have 196 riders making their way through the neutral zone at the start of today's stage. So far just two riders have pulled out: Enrico Gasparotto (Astana - stage one) and David Boucher (FDJ - stage four).

Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) retained his red leader's jersey after a quiet day on Wednesday. the Spaniard leads Britain's Chris Froome (Team Sky) by one second and countryman Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) by five seconds on GC. Dutch pair Robert Gesink and Bauke Mollema (both Rabobank) complete the top five, nine seconds down on the summit.