Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 3 of the Vuelta a Espana, a 158km rude from Mijas to Malaga that features the Cat.1 Puerto del Leon climb slam-bang in the middle but could well conclude with a sprint finish on the Costa del Sol.

Nibali claimed his disqualification was "double standards" and said he was very "unlucky" but stressed he would "take responsibility for these mistakes". He added: "We saw at The Tour when crashes like this with so many riders involved they stopped the race for 2 or 3 kilometres. Here, with Paolo Tiralongo and Niemec with concussion, when the race blew up they didn’t neutralise the race so its really a horrible situation whether for me, for the fans, for the Vuelta, a little for everyone."

Eurosport spoke to Vincenzo Nibali after his expulsion yesterday. This is what he said: "In my opinion the jury’s decision doesn’t make sense, because on other occasions, in the past, they did something different, with maybe a penalty of a minute or 2, or even 3 minutes, why not? And a fine in Swiss Francs like normal. Instead, I find myself, having prepared for the Vuelta and spent time away from the family - this is also my job that I try to do very well, but I have been very unfortunate this season so for me it was important to try to salvage something from the season so it was really important. So I’m not happy about it and I'm disappointed; nothing more."

The gap is up to 4:20 for the escapees as they continue the long slog ahead of the Cat.1 climb that comes at the half-way point of today's stage.

It's too much for Paolo Tiralongo, who withdraws from the race following those nasty facial injuries sustained in yesterday's crash. So, Astana are now down to just seven riders following his withdrawal and Nibali's disqualification.

Chavanel will hope to put a smile back on the collective faces at IAM Cycling after yesterday's severe set-back of losing both Pelucchi and Tanner. This is the 36-year-old's third consecutive Grand Tour this season - but his last for IAM after his contract runs out at the end of the season. Chavanel has worn the leader's jersey here in 2008 and 2011 but he has never won a stage in the Vuelta.

Eritrean's Berhane is the best placed rider on GC in this break - but the MTN-Qhubeka rider is 3:02 down on Chaves and so not a huge threat for now. Although with the gap increasing to over three minutes now, Berhane is the virtual maillot rojo of the race.

The gap is 2:30 for the escapees as Orica-GreenEdge lead the chase for their man in red, Chaves.

Omar Fraile (Caja Rural) takes maximum points atop the climb ahead of Chavanel and Berhane. Pedraza didn't have the legs. That means Fraile, Pedraza and yesterday's stage winner Chaves all have 3pts at the top of the KOM standings for now.

The leaders are onto the Cat.3 Alto de Mijas. Walter Pedraza (Team Colombia) will be motivated for the KOM points - he's in the blue polka dot jersey after taking the points over the top of the first climb yesterday.

Italian veteran Paolo Tiralongo continues the race despite the advice by his Astana team. Tiralongo came down heavily in the pile-up yesterday, suffering severe facial trauma - as you can see here...

Marcus Burghardt (BMC) did not take to the start today. The big German crashed in an isolated incident yesterday following the pile-up that caused all the drama. Burghardt badly hurt his knee and suffered facial injuries in the crash. He joins injured IAM Cycling pair Matteo Pelucchi and David Tanner, and Polish veteran Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) on the sidelines, plus the disqualified Nibali.

Eight riders have attacked: Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka), Slyvain Chavanel (IAM), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Walter Pedraza Morales (Colombia), Martin Velits (Etixx-QuickStep), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2R|)-La Mondiale, Ilia Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida) and Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo).

It's another hot, sunny day in southern Spain as the remaining 193 riders roll out of the start at Mijas.

With 10 bonus seconds for the win, Chaves took the red jersey and leads the overall standings by 5 seconds over Giant-Alpecin's Dumoulin, with Roche in third at 15 seconds. Of the GC favourites, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) are in the best positions after taking fifth and sixth on the stage.

The Nibali incident overshadowed a marvellous win for pint-sized Colombian Esteban Chaves of Orica-GreenEdge, who jumped clear of the final climb to take the win ahead of Thomas Dumoulin and Nico Roche.

The big news from yesterday's stage was that 2010 Vuelta champion Vincenzo Nibali was disqualified after footage emerged of the Italian being towed along by his Astana team car in quite brazen fashion following the pile-up which split the peloton around 30km from the finish.