Hola! It's that time of the day again... What time's that? Er, Alejandro-Valverde-winning-uphill time! In other words, live coverage of Stage 4 of La Vuelta - and the first mountain-top finish of the 73rd edition of the Spanish race.

Interestingly, although Valverde slashed Kwiatkowski's red jersey lead by two seconds, he is leap-frogged by both Yates and Buchmann in the standings.

Here's today's, er, top nine.

It was an eighth place for Yates as seven of the break manage to hold on. He'll rise up the standings a little - but the big winner today is that man Ben King, who wins a maiden Grand Tour stage.

Simon Yates comes home 2'49" down with Emanuel Buchman right in his wheel. Behind, it's Valverde who sprints clear of the other chasers to cross the line 3'13" down with Kwiatkowski leading the others over the line two seconds back.

Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) will hold on for fourth place and some KOM points.

Nikita Stalnov (Astana) takes second place a few seconds back and Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) takes third.

Victory for Ben King of Dimension Data!

With Rolland lurking, King puts in a big attack...

Rolland with a second wind! The Frenchman has almost joined the two leaders...

Under the banner go the two leaders. Behind, Yates still has a small gap over the group of favourites, which is still being driven by Valverde.

The road is flattening out a bit as Rolland returns to within 20 seconds of the two leaders.

Attack by Simon Yates! The British rider dances clear of the main group of favourites - and that will cause a bit of grief behind. Valverde leads the chase with Lopez, Bennett and Quintana in tow.

Rolland is tiring. The Frenchman is now 30 seconds down and so it looks like it's a shoot out between Stalnov and King. The gap is 4'15" and so King won't be in red - but he'll rise up the standings into the top five and could take a stage win.

The red jersey group is less than 20 riders now. Kwiatkowski appears to have no Sky support left. Valverde is there as is Uran, Kelderman, Aru, Lopez, Quintana, Simon Yates, Bennett, Formolo, Buchmann, Kruijswijk, Kuss, Gallopin, Pinot, Majka, Ion Izagirre...

Here's what the riders face in the final kilometre...

Under the 4km banner and the gap is down to 4'55" for the two leaders so it's highly unlikely that King will hold on for the red jersey. But he could still contest the stage win with Stalnov - while Rolland is only 17 seconds back now.

This tempo from LottoNL-Jumbo has really blown the peloton apart - the main pack is down to 20-odd riders now. Baume Mollema and Zakarin are both off the back.

One of the LottoNL-Jumbo working bees peels off and so they're down to three riders on the front - including Bennett and Kruijswijk. Simon Yates has come up too for Mitchelton-Scott. Up front, King and Stalnov are taking it in turns now to do pacing duties.

Rolland is making no in-roads so perhaps today won't belong to him. He'll soon be on Rigoberto Uran domestique duties and so it will be a wretch if he doesn't take this gilt-edged opportunity for a stage win - one that would complete his Grand Tour collection.

It looks like Ilnur Zakarin, who crashed two days ago, is being distanced too.