Hola and welcome to live coverage of stage 9 of La Vuelta - a short and savagely sharp mountainous schlep through Andorra on the eve of the first rest day.

Well, that tweet didn't age very well...

Movistar have now sent some riders to the front of the pack to pace ahead of the climb. They have Pedrero and Soler in the move, which is 4'10" up the road. Kiryienka is the first rider to be dropped from the break at the start of the climb.

The break is onto the Cat HC Coll de la Gallina (12.2km at 8.3%). It's a highly irregular climb which has numerous double-digit gradients and a maximum ramp of 14%.

Remember - there's a narrow 4km flat gravel section after the Alto de Engolasters before the final climb, which could be rather fruity if the scheduled rain falls.

Ineos, who have five riders in this break, and Sunweb, who have four, have come to the front to set the tempo, stretching out the lead to 3'30". Behind, it's Cofidis who are going the red jersey justice with some own tempo'ing of themselves.

It's come back together after the rest of the break caught up with the seven leaders. They're on a flatter step before the final drop towards the foot of the next climb. The gap back to the pack is 2'10".

There's been a shake-up after the descent with the two leaders joined by five, so we have eight out ahead now: Sepp Kuss, Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma), Antonio Pedrero (Movistar Team), Omar Fraile, Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Patrick Bevin (CCC Team), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi-Murias).

Today's stage is one of my seven key stages of this year's Vuelta. Read all about it - and the others - below.

Some thoughts on today's stage from Tagej Pogacar, who is 9th on GC in his maiden Grand Tour and 2nd in the white jersey standings.

Confirmation that it was Bizkarra who took the 10pts ahead of Bevin (6pts), De Gendt (4pts), Kuss (2pts) and Gesink (1pt).

There are a few steps in this long descent but on the whole it goes on for 27km so it's a bit of a whopper. Expect there to be a bit of a shake up because some of these escapees descent much better than others - and as soon as they reach the bottom, they'll be heading back up on the Coll de la Gallina.

The best placed rider in the break is Hagen of Lotto Soudal, who is in seventh place 3'45" down on Edet. The Norwegian was in yesterday's break to rise up the standings and into the top 10; he was 22nd before the stage.

Three riders are trying to bridge over from the pack: Michael Storer (Team Sunweb), Vasil Kiryienka (Team Ineos), Oscar Cabedo (Burgos-BH). The two leaders are Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi-Murias).

The large chase group are: Antonio Pedrero, Marc Soler (Movistar Team), Pierre Latour, Geofffrey Bouchard (AG2R La Mondiale), Jakob Fuglsang, Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida), Felix Grosschaurtner (Bora-Hansgrohe), Lawson Craddock, Sergio Higuita (EF Education First), Kilian Frankiny, Romain Seigle (Groupama-FDJ), Thomas De Gendt, Carl Hagen (Lotto Soudal), Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, Ben O’Connor (Dimension Data), Wout Poels, David de la Cruz, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Sebastian Henao (Team Ineos), Robert Gesink, Sepp Kuss, Neilson Powless (Jumbo-Visma), Matteo Fabbro, Ruben Guerreiro (Katusha Alpecin), Wilco Kelderman, Robert Power, Martijn Tusveld (Team Sunweb), Nikias Eg (Trek-Segafredo), Jesus Herrada, Darwin Atapuma (Cofidis) and Sergio Samitier (Euskadi-Murias).

Our leaders are zipping down the descent with the peloton still going up. They have caught Groupama's Kilian Frankiny, who was in the move but who has either been dropped or sat up. And they go over the top 2'05" down.

It's Bizkarra who crests the summit in the lead ahead of Bevin so they'll pocket 10pts and 6pts respectively in the KoM standings. The chasers go over 45 seconds down although we didn't have a camera on the front so we don't know who it was who led them over.

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) is now pushing on the pace on the front of the break as they approach the summit.

The two leaders have 45 seconds now on the break with the peloton a further minute back. We're about two km from the summit.

Some interesting names in this break, including Movistar duo Antonio Pedrero and Marc Soler, Astana trio Omar Fraile, Jakob Fuglsang and Ion Izagirre, breakaway specialist Thomas De Gendt, Ineos trio Geoghegan Hart, Wout Poels and David de la Cruz, Jumbo Visma's George Bennett, Robert Gesink and Sepp Kuss, former stage winner Jesus Herrada, the Dutchman Wilco Kelderman, veteran Mikel Nieve, EF Education First's young Colombian duo Sergio Higuita and Dani Martinez, Frenchman Pierre Latour...

Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi-Murias) have zipped clear of the break and have a 20-second gap, with the red jersey group about 45 seconds back. Early skirmishes here.

Geoghegan Hart has been joined by a large chase group of around 25 riders. The peloton has three Cofidis riders on the front, including the red jersey Edet. Meanwhile, a gruppetto is already forming and Angel Madrazo has been dropped. He's ridden a very good opening week but I don't expect to see the Spaniard in polka dots for much longer.