Hola and welcome to live coverage of stage 20 of the Vuelta a Espana - and it's the big one: four Cat.1 climbs in a 176km ride from San Lorenzo de El Escorial to Cercedilla.

David Arroyo (Caja Rural) has crashed on the descent and is waiting for a new bike. He'll have to fight back on to the break now - and that will dent his chances of entering the top ten today.

Some riders having a few bothers on the descent, with Russian Vorganov (Katusha) leaving the road on a tight bend, riding onto a gritty parking bay but managing to stay up before rejoining the road ahead of the commissaire's car. That was a close one.

Plaza has 2:30 on the 37 chasing riders and 11:15 over the pack, which is still being led by the Giant-Alpecin team of Tom Dumoulin.

The chasing groups have come together so we now have 37 riders in pursuit of lone leader, Plaza. The Spaniard goes over the top in pole position, which puts him on 33 points and that's second place behind Omar Fraile in the KOM standings. Fraile's lead of 82 cannot be beaten today, however.

A reminder of the nine chasing riders who are about 20 riders behind: Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal), Jaco Venter (MTN-Qhubeka), Lawrance Warbasse (IAM Cycling), Dani Navarro (Cofidis), Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo), José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Moreno Moser (Cannondale-Garmin) and Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar).

Attack by Ruben Plaza of Lampre-Merida. He won a stage in the Tour and now the veteran Spaniard is going for a long one, edging clear of the leading group of 10 riders.

We're onto the second climb of the day, the Cat.1 Puerto de la Morcuera (11.5 km at 5.4%). There's now one minute between the two leading groups, with the peloton 9:40 back.

The best placed rider in the two breaks is Spaniard David Arroyo of Caja-Rural. Before yesterday's stage he was 30 minutes down on GC, but he halved that yesterday and is currently 14:49 down on Dumoulin. But with the six-odd minutes he has today, he's not virtually up into the top ten.

There's no cohesion whatsoever in the chasing group, which contains four stage winners from this year in Roche, Oliveira, De Marchi and Gougeard.

No change in the time gaps on this long forested descent. The leaders have actually got to the bottom and they're passing through a little town with cobbled streets.

With four riders up ahead, Movistar's tactics are clear to see. They're clearly planning something with Valvarde and Quintana today, and they'll have support up the road when they do so. If they can't get either man on the podium then a stage win wouldn't go amiss. They only have one win from this year's Vuelta - Valverde back in the opening week.

The 11 leaders have 45 seconds over the large chasing pack, with the peloton now a large 7:25 down on this descent.

Giant-Alpecin still control matters on the front of the peloton. They have no riders in either of the breaks - which is no surprise: today is not about attacking but defending the race lead of their man Tom Dumoulin.

It was José Gonçalves who took the 10pts atop the first climb in the break, protecting the already unassailable lead of his Caja Rural team-mate Omar Fraile in the KOM standings. Plaza was second ahead of Warbasse, Moser and Navarro. Moreno Moser (Cannondale-Garmin) actually replaced Miguel Ángel Rubiano (Colombia) in the lead group earlier on the climb when the Colombian rider tailed off.

It's worth adding that Fabio Aru will not receive any time penalty for an alleged hand-sling he received from Luis Leon Sanchez yesterday on the final climb to the finish line. TV pictures were inconclusive and the race jury cast a blind eye over what would have been an illegal manoeuvre. The usual penalty for such a crime is 10 seconds. Read more about it below in the daily Vuelta Skelter blog...

The 29-man chasing group in full: Kevin Reza (FDJ), Andrey Amador, Fran Ventoso (Movistar), Haimar Zubeldia (Trek), Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale-Garmin), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Sergio Henao (Team Sky), Andrey Zeits (Astana), Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo), Luis León Sánchez (Astana), José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar), Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida), Alberto Losada (Katusha), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Alessandro de Marchi (BMC), Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida), David Arroyo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin), Carlos Verona (Etixx-Quick Step), Amael Moinard (BMC), Nicolas Roche (Team Sky), Jelle Vanendert, Jasper De Buyst (Lotto-Soudal), Alex Cano (Team Colombia), Romain Sicard (Europcar).

Some interesting names in the chasing group: Sicard for Europcar, Visconti, Amador, Ventoso and Rojas for Movistar, Sanchez and Zeits for Astana, Henao and Roche of Sky, De Marchi of BMC and yesterday's winner Gougeard of Ag2R-La Mondiale.

We're onto the Cat.1 Puerto de Navacerrada (9.4 km at 6.6%). The leaders have 30 seconds on the chasing group and five minutes on the peloton.

A large group of around 30 riders is chasing the leading group. None of the big names are involved - they're keeping themselves primed for the later climbs, where the GC battle will no doubt intensify.

A small crash in the pack brings down Simon Gerrans (Orica-Greenedge) and Fabrice Jeandesboz (Europcar) amongst others.

The 11 leaders are: Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida), Larry Warbasse (IAM Cycling), Olivier Le Gac (FDJ), Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal), Jaco Venter (MTN-Qhubeka), Dani Navarro (Cofidis), Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo), José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Miguel Angel Rubiano (Colombia) and Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar).