Vuelta a Espana 2023 Stage 3 LIVE: Remco Evenepoel set to do battle with Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic on the first summit finish in Andorra

1. Remco Evenepoel 8'43"11
2. Enric Mas +5"
3. Lenny Martinez +11"
4. Jonas Vingegaard +31"
5. Aleksandr Vlasov +33"

That's a very healthy lead at this point in proceedings.

And the new king of the mountains, and the new leader in the young rider competition as well. Vendrame is the leader in the points competition.

1. Remco Evenepoel 4'15"39
2. Jonas Vingegaard +1"
3. Juan Ayuso "
4. Primoz Roglic "
5. Marc Soler "

He celebrated double-handed over the line, which was where the finish went downhill again, and as he was regaining control of the bike he had too much speed and not enough time to stop before reaching the support staff. The stage winner went clattering into a member of what looked like his own team's staff and comes up with blood on his face. Tis but a scratch, you'd hope, but a very dramatic one.

That kind of thing doesn't happen too often - the only one I can remember is Lizzie Deignan going into the photographers at the Tour of Britain several years ago.

Now that. Is a statement. All of the favourites bar, perhaps, Geraint Thomas, were together coming into the final 500m and it was Evenepoel who hit out first and hardest. Vingegaard was unable to hold the wheel and the Belgian had just enough time to give it the full alpha celebration.

Vine's work done, the Spaniard goes for it, clocked first by Vingegaard before Sepp Kuss goes over the top.

As Kamna sets out in search of something special. He just has to hope it doesn't kick off too much behind. Worth mentioning that Kamna is currently the virtual red jersey as well. He needs a margin of about 30 seconds to earn himself two trips to the podium in about half an hour.

Ayuso on his team-mate's wheel, being marked by Vingegaard, Roglic and Kuss, with Evenepoel right behind the Slovenia. The peloton is well strung out, but it's still a much longer line than we might have expected at this point. The leaders have gained almost half a minute over the last ten kilometres.

5KM TO GO: NO-ONE FROM THE PELOTON ENGAGING

It's still a pretty large bunch, consisting of most of the riders from most of big teams, UAE, Jumbo, QuickStep and Ineos, which tells you a lot. It had looked hopeless for our front two, but the odds are swinging back in favour of the breakaway. Still the steepest slopes to come, however.

Or is he? False alarm, in fact. Though that looked to be that, again the Italian grinds his way back onto Kamna's wheel. You'd think all these stop starts would be costing them on aggregate, but their lead over the bunch is now closer to two minutes than one.

But he can't quite shake off Caruso. How much they need to work together is debatable, though. It seems to me that they basically need to give everything they can to have a hope of staying away. King Sean Kelly doesn't think they've got a prayer.

Because this climb is a bit of a brute. It's 8.3km long, with an average of 7.7%, although that hides ramps rising well into the double digits. The steepest kilometres come towards the top, and it doesn't ease down before the line.

The race speeds through the Andorran town of Ordino with one diminished peloton hunting down two riders who will take about a minute's advantage onto the final climb. That will come down very quickly once the big names start firing.

Although he's parted company (backwards) with Kamna and Caruso, so those ten are likely the last points he'll claim in that competition today. Will he take the jersey. Well, it depends.

And grateful for these very descent roads. There's now merely a minute separating the three leaders from the peloton.

22KM TO GO: CARUSO ATTACKS FROM THE BREAK

With the breakaway's lead coming down fast, Caruso recognizes that he can't hang about much longer if he wants to take anything out of today. He launches just before the summit, daring Sepulveda and Kamna to come with him. The Argentinian accepts the invitation and snatches the 10 mountains points on offer. That will probably do something to the KOM competition, but I can't work out what just now.

Time for the first accelerations from the bunch, and after Jay Vine (Bora-Hansgrohe) it's Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich) who has a go. Jumbo Visma are obliged to send a rider after him, and Wilco Kelderman is the man. The increase in bunch pace means Piccolo has finally lost contact with the group.