Hello and welcome to libve coverage of Stage 14 of La Vuelta - a mountainous 171km slog from Cistierna to Les Praeres which includes five categorised climbs including the gruelling Cat.1 summit finish. It's the second of three mountaintop showdowns that could well decide who wins this Vuelta and we have it live from start to finish on Eurosport TV and here online.

De Gendt is 25 seconds back after that mishap. It also appears that Ivan Garcia Cortina - the local rider - has been dropped by the break. The Spaniard is further back - probably in the peloton again - as Roche, Bookwalter, Woods and Kwiatkowski reach the brow and start the descent.

The leaders are on a short uphill ramp through the woods that precedes the descent proper. It's Woods who sets the tempo - and that's because, it seems, De Gendt has a mechanical and needs to stop to sort out his chain, which appeared to slip.

It's Nibali who leads the pack over the summit with a deficit of two minutes on the break.

Another 10pts for De Gendt who moves on to 54pts - 10pts behind Luis Angel Mate - as he crests the summit ahead of Kwiatkowski and Woods, takes a fresh bidon from the Lotto Soudal soigneur up top, then starts this next descent.

Kwiatkowski taking over from De Gendt now, while in the main pack Bora have sidled up to Bahrain Merida to lend a hand. Two minutes still separate the six leaders from the chasing pack.

It's Bahrain Merida time: Gorka and Ion Izagirre come to the front with their team-mate Vincenzi Nibali driving the pace. As a result we can see numerous riders being spat out the back.

Uh oh, Luis Angel Mate - who we think is ill - is riding on the back of the pack alongside Steve Cummings, who has spent the entire race there (as is his custom).

Thomas De Gendt drives the pace of the break. They have 2'20" and the Belgian will look to continue his hot KOM streak and trouser 10pts over the summit.

The Bora-Handgrohe team of Emanuel Buchmann have come to the front of the pack. The German lost a little time yesterday and dropped three places to 10th on GC. He'll be hoping for a good day today. They also have Rafal Majka, who was second yesterday on La Camperona, and Davide Formolo, not to forget the world champion Sagan.

They're now on the Cat.1 Alto de la Mozqueta (6.5km at 8.7%) which has two 10% sections so it's not a walk in the park.

We're about to hit the next climb and the leading De Gendt group have seen their gap drop below the two-minute mark. Cofidis and Movistar still set tempo on the front of the pack but I don't think we can expect any attacks on this climb - they'll probably come on the penultimate climb and then all-in on the finale.

The break has lost another minute on this gradual downhill approach to the next climb. They have 2'45".

A reminder of the six leaders: Nicolas Roche and Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac), Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain Merida) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky). They have 3'30" as they head towards the third of five climbs.

Cofidis and Movistar lead the peloton over the top with a 3'45" deficit on the break, so the gap has gone out over that climb. It's quite a gnarly descent and so we'll keep everything crossed for the pack - I wouldn't want to do down this one in a race scenario in a group of riders, that's for sure.

Another 10pts for Thomas De Gendt who zips clear to mop up the spoils over the summit. That puts him up to 44pts - four ahead of Ben King and 20 behind the current KOM leader Luis Angel Mate. It's looking good for the Belgian in his polka dot quest. There are 23 more points up for grabs today so it's unlikely that De Gendt will take that jersey today - unless he pulls it out of the bag and wins the stage - but he's definitely put himself in the shop window today.

Radio transmitter issues for Simon Yates, who is off the back of the peloton sorting this out - in a very round-about way - with his Mitchelton-Scott team car. I just have a sense that the British rider may be due a bad day - like the one he had on the Colle delle Finestre in the Giro, where he lost the maglia rosa to Chris Froome.

Ivan Garcia Cortina has been riding all the uphills with his Bahrain Merida jersey fully unzipped and rooted to the back of the six-man break. Their gap is up to three minutes now.

Quite a few riders struggling off the back of the peloton as Cofidis and Movistar continue their high-tempo on the front. No change in the gap for the leaders for now. But this stage is about to properly get going...

We're onto the Cat.1 Alto de la Colladona (5.3km at 8.1%). It's not very long but starts with a stinging double-digit ramp.

It's a bit of a Thomas De Gendt day today - past, present and perhaps future? The last climb he took maximum points - just as he did two years ago in that stage won by David de la Cruz. And this next climb, the Alto de la Colladona, featured in last year's race in a stage where the Belgian won in Gijon at the end of the day.

The gap is still 2'20" as the six leaders near the bottom of this long descent. We have the next climb coming right up but it's touch and go for these guys, especially with so many hungry GC riders behind.