Hola and welcome to live coverage of Stage 7 of La Vuelta - a 207km schlep from Lliria to the historic walled town of Cuenca in east-central Spain.

And after that round-up, we pick it up live now - with the peloton back together after that brief split, and the 14-man break holding a gap of 6'40" over the pack. Here's footage of our escapees...

There was a bit of action in the peloton during the feeding zone with some crosswinds splitting the pack in two thanks to the pace-setting of Froome's Team Sky. Matteo Trentin, the green jersey at Quick-Step Floors, was one of the riders caught out.

De Gendt took maximum points again over the summit to move onto 16pts - so he's still 22pts behind leader Villella, but every little helps.

The sun was back and the temperature up to 35 degrees.

The gap was up to 6'25" for the break going onto the second climb, the Cat.3 Alto de Santa Cruz de Moya.

De Gendt took the maximum 3pts over the summit of the climb. That put the Belgian onto 13pts in the KOM competition - making him the nearest rival to the current polka dot jersey, Davide Villella of Cannondale-Drapac, who has 38pts.

The break reached the first climb of the day, the Cat.3 Puerto La Montalbana, with 5'45" over the peloton. Niemiec gave up the ghost and returned to the peloton after failing to join the leaders after his fruitless game of chasse-patate.

Another withdrawal to report on today as Jonas Van Genechten (Cofidis) called it a day in the opening hour. He won a stage last year for IAM Cycling.

The break formed after about 10km of riding with the gap rising to two minutes after 20km. The escapees were: Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Richard Carapaz, Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Pawel Poljanski (Bora-Hansgrohe), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo), Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirates), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Luis Angel Mate, Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Rafael Reis (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Aldemar Reyes and Jetse Bol (Manzana-Postobon). Przemyslaw Niemiec (UAE Team Emirates) was chasing on from the pack.

188 riders took to the start today following the withdrawal yesterday of Carlos Betancur of Movistar. The Colombian crashed in that incident that brought down Tejay Van Garderen yesterday, breaking his ankle and damaging his jaw in the process.

Once again, it's another hot day in Spain with the mercury pushing 30 degrees Celsius. But we have the first bit of rain that we've seen on the 72nd edition of the race... Before we continue our live coverage, let's take a look back at what has happened so far in today's seventh stage...

We join the race live with a break of 14 riders holding a 6'35" gap over the peloton with 115km and just one more of those climbs remaining.

Here's what the riders are tackling today, as the race rises to an undulating plateau. Three Cat.3 climbs could well suit a breakaway - although the teams of the sprinters will hope to bring it back together before the finish...

Yesterday, Tomasz Marczynski led a Polish one-two ahead of compatriot Pawel Poljanski and Spanish rookie Enric Mas as the breakaway defied the odds to go the distance in an enthralling Stage 6 of La Vuelta in Sagunt. Marczynski, the 33-year-old journeyman at Lotto Soudal, darted clear from the wheel of Quick-Step Floors youngster Mas and held off Bora-Hansgrohe’s Poljanski in a three-way sprint at the conclusion of the undulating 204.4km stage in the province of Valencia.