Hola and welcome to live coverage of stage 20 of the Vuelta a Espana - the all-important 193km ride from Benidorm to Alto Aitana, a lumpy affair that will decide who rolls into Madrid in the coveted red jersey...

Both Astana and Cofidis are without a stage win in this Vuelta so there's a fair bit of pressure on this leading duo. Sanchez appears to be doing more of the pace-setting - and he's by far the better climber of the two. Molard has just picked up some gels from his team car. They have two minutes over the chasers and 11:45 over the pack now, as they head downhill towards the foot of the next climb.

There's been another hiatus back in the pack after a collective comfort break. As such, the gap has grown back out to 10:15 for the two leaders, Rudy Molard (Cofidis) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana). They've passed through the intermediate sprint at Alcoi and are on an uncategorised climb before a fast descent to the next Cat.2 climb. Their lead to the 15 chasers is down to 2:15.

Elissonde is now deep in conversation with Gesink in cycling's equivalent of Little and Large. Perhaps they will form another alliance on the road today...

Orica have slashed the gap to 8:30 but the break still trails the two leaders by 2:30. It's nicely poised ahead of the next climb, with that man Elissonde needing two points to draw back level with Fraile in the battle for polka dots. There's just the one points available for third place at the top of the next Cat.2 climb and so the Frenchman needs to catch Molard and Sanchez if he wants to be assured of the KOM competition instead of leaving it all to the final climb...

Orica-BikeExchange have come to the front to increase the tempo and drive the chase. They have had a brilliant Vuelta with three stage wins and two riders in the top five for quite some time. That said, they had an off day yesterday with Esteban Chaves losing his podium place to Alberto Contador and Simon Yates dropping to fifth to the benefit of Andrew 'Stealth' Talansky of Cannondale.

Reports coming in that Rojas has fractured his ankle in that fall. That will be the end of his season - very sad, he was so close to reaching Madrid and completing his second Vuelta (he also DNF'ed in 2012, his maiden Vuelta).

The gap back to the peloton has now ballooned to almost 10 minutes as the two leaders - Molard and Sanchez - combine well on the front. They have 2:45 over the chasing group of 15 riders. It's tempting to say that the winner will come from these 17 riders ahead of the pack - but the final climb is 21km long and it could, and should, all blow up there on the Alto di Aitana once the favourites do battle.

Movistar have just lead the peloton past that corner where their team-mate Rojas is being treated. Valverde has had a word with Froome but there's not much they can do. It looks 99% that Rojas will not continue because an ambulance has arrived and he's still being attended to. He was sitting up and talking to the doctor, but is now prone while being looked at. Fingers crossed - but it looks to be the second withdrawal for a Spanish veteran in less than 24 hours after Sammy Sanchez (BMC) withdrew yesterday after dislocating his shoulder in a crash 9km from the finish of the time trial.

Rojas was at the back of the break when that incident happened. He appeared to lose his front wheel and go down heavily on his right shoulder before skidding under the barriers and into the ditch. Thankfully he didn't collide with a vertical post on the barrier - sneaking in between two posts. But his ankle clipped the top of the barrier and he's being attended to now. It looks like his race is over.

So, four stage winners from this race in the break: Gesink, Frank, Conti and Calmejane. Oh, and CRASH! Jose Joaquim Rojas (Movistar) goes down hard on a right-hand bend - skidding under the barriers and down a rocky ditch. Not nice.

Chapeau, Kenny! Elissonde has joined the chase group. They are: Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Yuri Trofimov (Tinkoff), David Lopez (Team Sky), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Damien Howson (Orica-BikeExchange), Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo), Pierre Latour (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha), Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal), Ben King (Cannondale-Drapac), Mathias Frank and Clément Chevrier (IAM Cycling), Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida) and Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie). And now Elissonde...

Here are those two leaders - Molard and Sanchez - from earlier on the last climb.

CORRECTION: The Cofidis rider with Luis Leon Sanchez is not Romain Hardy, but Rudy Molard. There must be some confusion with the official Vuelta website and the TV graphics, because he's been referred to as Hardy but it is indeed Molard. We're sorry about that mishap.

There's a long descent now, which pitches up hald way through, before the road rises again towards the intermediate sprint ahead of the next climb. The two leaders - Hardy and Sanchez - have 2:15 over the 15-man chase group, and 5:15 over the main pack, which includes Quintana, Froome, Contador et al.

Hardy crests the summit ahead of Sanchez to take maximum points over the climb. Behind, Gesink leads the chasers with Atapuma in his wheel. They go over 1:45 in arrears with poor Elissonde riding solo in pursuit. He's made a right hash of things today, attacking early, popping on the climb, and letting Faile take the points that could well see him wrest the jersey from the Frenchman's shoulders. Meanwhile, the pack go over the summit 4:35 behind.

We're onto the Cat.2 Alto de Tollos (4.1km at 5.9%) and Kenny Elissonde (FDJ) has attacked from the peloton. He surely won't catch the leaders before the summit, but he's maybe playing a long game. He needs to take 3 points somewhere today to overturn Omar Fraile at the top of the KOM standings.

So, the two leaders have 1:20 over the chase group and 2:15 over the Movistar-led pack. Things have finally quietened down a bit after a really frantic opening two hours. That said, Valverde doesn't seem too happy - he's remonstrating with team-mates Rory Sutherland and Imanol Erviti on the front of the pack, oddly enough.

Valverde must have been getting some grief in the chasing group - either that or Movistar decided his work would be better done back with his leader, Nairo Quintana. For the green jersey is now right back there, alongside the red jersey on the front of the main pack.

Confirmation of the chase group: Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff), Yury Trofimov (Tinkoff), David Lopez (Sky), Salvatore Puccio (Sky), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), Romain Sicard (Direct Energie), Damien Howson (Orica-BikeExchange), Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo), Pierre-Roger Latour (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Benjamin King (Cannondale-Drapac), Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data), Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida), Daniel Moreno (Movistar), Bart De Clerq (Lotto Soudal).

So, it's nicely poised with three Movistar riders and two Sky and two Tinkoff riders in this 19-man chase group. It still may come back together, mind - the gap isn't growing very fast and the main pack is alert to the dangers.

It's worth adding that Sky's Salvatore Puccio is in the Valverde group, which has been caught by Moreno, Rojas and Lopez. It also includes: Atapuma, Howson, Gesink, Rovny, Didier, KIng, Latour, Trofimov, Kudus, Conti, Frank, De Clercq, Sicard and Felline. So it includes many of that initial seven-man break from which leaders Hardy and Sanchez attacked near the summit of the last climb. The duo has almost a minute on the chasers, with the pack only about 15 seconds further back.