Hola and welcome to live coverage of stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana, a 188.7km schlep from Lugones to Lagos de Covadonga which should blow apart the GC and give us a real idea of who's going to take the red jersey to Madrid in just under a fortnight.

The break has managed to stretch out their lead on this climb as Camepanerts continues setting a strong pace with Hermans in his back wheel. The BMC rider is no longer the virtual red jersey, it's worth adding. Back with the pack it's the familiar sight of Australian Rory Sutherland setting the tempo for Movistar. 3:30 the gap.

It's LottoNL-Jumbo's Victor Camepanerts who sets the pace for the break - the Dutch team's Vuelta was turned on its head when leader Steven Kruijswijk crashed out in the opening week with that controversial collision with a bollard in Galicia.

The leaders are onto the Cat.1 Mirador del Fito (6.2km at 7.8%). It heads downhill almost immediately after an initial ramp, but then rises at a steady gradient which peaks out above 10%. The 16 leaders have three minutes to play with.

It's a shame about this break coming undone - Cannondale clearly had a plan today and certainly played their cards right. It will be tricky for them to turn things round now, though. If reeled in, these guys will be very much ousted by the GC favourites. Meanwhile, a gap of three minutes just won't be enough at this rate.

We're fast approaching the first major climb of the day after rising up from the coast. The gap has come down to four minutes as the Movistar team-mates of Nairo Quintana move to the front to up the tempo. The sun is back out after an overcast and drizzly beginning. While the break has some solid riders, it won't go the distance is their advantage comes down much more.

It's two years since Poland's Przemyslaw Niemiec won at Lagos de Covadonga the last time the race came here. In total the Vuelta has had a stage finish at the lakes on 20 occasions since 1983 with Pedro Delgado, Lucho Herrera and Laurent Jalabert having all won twice. It was on the road to Lagos de Covadonga in the 1996 Vuelta that Miguel Indurain abandoned his final day as a professional, at the Hotel El Capitan, 20 years ago...

The upshot of this break's ballooning lead is that Belgium's Ben Hermans (BMC) is now the virtual red jersey. Hermans was 4:21 down on De la Cruz this morning in the overall standings.

Etixx-QuickStep have all nine of their riders on the front of the pack, which trails the 16-man break by 5:30 now. They have both the red and green jerseys to protect today although it would be a huge surprise if David de la Cruz manages to hold on to the race lead today. The Spaniard is 22 seconds clear of Nairo Quintana and 41 seconds clear of Alejandro Valverde. Chris Froome is fourth at 49 and Esteban Chaves fifth at 1:19.

Here's what the riders have to look forward to on today's stunning final climb to the Covadonga lakes...

There are some solid climbers in this break besides Messrs Rolland and Dombrowski. Robert Gesink has climbing pedigree while Mate has already been particularly active in this year's race, as has Bakelants. Fraile won the polka dot jersey last year so knows how to ride uphill on his day, while Goncalves proved his strength with a handful of top tens in his maiden Vuelta last year.

Big presence from Cannondale in this break who have climbers Rolland and Dombrowsky, plus rouleur Moser in the break. Solid riders who could do something special today. And it's Moser, who was in yesterday's break, who is now setting the pace on a steep uncategorised peak ahead of today's major climbs. The gap is almost four minutes now. Cannondale's team manager is a happy man...

Fraile was the first rider to have a pop today, sparking a response by some others. Double stage winner Gianni Meersman, the green jersey, then crashed before the race was brought back together after 40km. Meersman's Etixx team-mate Gianluca Brambilla was then in trouble off the back of the peloton. The Italian was off the back in a grupetto for quite some time before the group managed to bridge back over - at around the same time that these 16 escapees broke clear.

Three riders were forced to withdraw from the race following that early spate of crashes: Kevin Reza (FDJ), Markel Irizar (Trek-Segafredo) and Bartosz Huzarski (Bora-Argon18).

There have been numerous crashes today with former race leader Darwin Atapuma (BMC) among a whole host of riders who went down in a pile-up in the opening kilometres in two separate incidents.

The 16 leaders are: Ben Hermans (BMC), Victor Camepanerts and Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Dmitryi Gruzdev (Astana), Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant-Alpecin), Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo), Jan Bakelants (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Egor Silin (Katusha), Louis Vervaeke (Lotto Soudal), Joe Dombrowski, Moreno Moser and Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), Vegard Staeke Laengen (IAM Cycling), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) and José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

We pick up today's stage with 100km remaining and a break of 16 riders currently roll along with a lead of three minutes over the peloton.

Yesterday, Colombian Nairo Quintana was seemingly content to concede the race lead to stage 9 winner David de la Cruz of Spain, who soloed to victory on the Alto del Naranco after riding clear of fellow escapee Dries Devenyns in the last kilometre.