Hola and welcome to live coverage of Stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana - at 207.8km, this hilly stage from Mombuey to Luintra is the longest in the 73rd edition of the race, so sit tight, buckle up, and enjoy it all playing out from the comfort of your perch in the office (if that's where you are).

And we have the first rain of this year's Vuelta. That may explain why Pinot is feeling so sprightly - the Frenchman famously hates the heat.

It's interesting to see Frenchman Pinot in the break: he's the clear dangerman at just 2'33" down on the current red jersey, Simon Yates. Pinot will no doubt be persona non grata in this move because he may ensure that the peloton gives the leaders little leeway. Either that or the Groupama-FDJ man may be forced to drop back. We'll see. For now the gap is up to 1'15".

This is the composition of the 19-man break: Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain-Merida), Nans Peters (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Omar Fraile (Astana), Alessandro De Marchi, Nicolas Roche, Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Thibaut Pinot, Léo Vincent (Groupama-FDJ), Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal), Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott), Winner Anacona (Movistar), Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data), Pierre Rolland (Education First-Drapac), Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha Alpecin), Sergio Henao (Team Sky), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Sergio Pardilla (Caja Rural-Seguros-RGA) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi-Murias).

Two more withdrawals to report: Alexis Gougeard (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Georg Preidler (Groupama-FDJ). That means we're down to 170 riders. Before today only three riders had thrown in the towel but that number has doubled in the past half hour.

We now have a break of 19 riders off the front. It looks like it's an amalgamation between that earlier group and those who darted out of the pack to catch them before the summit. The gap is 45 seconds.

Frenchman Rolland managed to take the 3pts over the summit of the climb ahead of Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Sergio Henao (Team Sky). That put Rolland up to 23pts in the KOM standings. He's currently fourth with Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) leading on 60pts.

The nine-man group I mentioned at the start of this recap involved Nans Peters (Ag2r La Mondiale), Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Tiesj Benoot (Lotto-Soudal), Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data), Pierre Rolland (Education First-Drapac), Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha-Alpecin), Sergio Pardilla (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi-Murias). They formed on the Cat.3 Alto do Covelo (9.5km at 4%) but only had a small advantage and were joined by some other riders after Team Sky led the chase on the front.

Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni (Codifis) became the fourth rider to abandon ahead of the second climb. He was out of the top 10 yesterday but won stage 6 in the opening week.

11 riders opened up a small gap after 75km: Mark Padun (Bahrain-Merida), Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Winner Anacona, Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Laurens De Plus (Quick-Step Floors), Pierre Rolland (Education First-Drapac), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Sky), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Jesus Herrada (Cofidis). The peloton split as that move was reabsorbed by the first pack. Eventually the pack got back together - and then Lopez managed to rejoin his fellow GC favourites.

The pace was high over the first hours with the peloton covering 49km despite that climb. And there was a spot of bother for Astana's Miguel Angel Lopez who was dropped and found himself 1'30" back. Nibali put in another attack after 60km and was joined by double stage winner Ben King (Dimension Data) and Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) as the Colombian Lopez slowly reduced his deficit.

Richard Carapaz (Movistar) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) managed to join the leaders after the summit, followed by more riders - including Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) - but it came to nothing. Meanwhile, many of the riders who were distanced on the climb - most notably Peter Sagan, the world champion - fought back on.

That move came to nothing within 10km after the riders hit the Cat.3 Puerto del Padornelo (5.7km at 5.3%) which Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain Merida) crested in pole position after riding clear with another cluster of riders.

SHARK ATTACK: Vincenzo Nibali was the first rider to try his luck, the Italian zipping clear shortly after the start. He was joined by six riders but it came to nothing before a trio of riders - Dylan Teuns (BMC), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and Lukas Postlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) - edged ahead with 180km remaining.

We pick up the race with 120km remaining just as the riders are approaching the second categorised climb. There's a break of nine riders out but their gap is just 10 seconds. It's been a frantic couple of hours on the road - and we'll now update you with all that's happened.

It was an early start today for the remaining 173 riders who rolled out of Mombuey a couple of hours ago in sunshine and clouds and milder weather.

Here's the official profile for the stage today - and as you can see, it's pretty lumpy. It features four lower-category climbs and constantly undulating roads on terrain ideally suited for a breakaway or a GC ambush. When the race last finished on this exact same circuit back in Stage 6 in 2016, Simon Yates soloed to glory ahead of Luis Leon Sanchez. A repeat would be a hell of a way for the Briton to underline his red jersey credentials.

Yesterday, Italian national champion Elia Viviani held off the world champion Peter Sagan and compatriot Giacomo Nizzolo to win Stage 10 and secure his second scalp in La Vuelta – and his seventeen of the season. On the predominantly pan-flat 177km stage from Salamanca to Bermillo de Sayago, Viviani benefitted from a perfect lead-out from his Quick-Step Floors train to keep things on script and deliver his Belgian team its 60th success of a stellar season. Read all about it and watch the highlights here.