La Vuelta Femenina stage 7 LIVE: The GC remains wide open ahead of the final, brutal stage to L'Angrilu

Femke's sister, Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek), who we saw warming up earlier, is now trying to reach the front, they're together, 18 seconds in front of the peloton.

100km to go

Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime) has attacked alone. This is an interesting most from Anna van der Breggen's team. Markus began the day more than nine minutes behind her team leader.

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) was the first rider over the top and she takes the lead in the mountains classification. Van der Breggen is in second, while the previous leader, Alice Coutinho (Mayenne-Monbana My Pie) is now third.

Well, maybe not. Six riders have broken away over the top.
Our top three of Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ and Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike) were all there, but now they're back together, a complete peloton takiing on the descent.

This may come back together as it's 60km from the top of the climb until the foot of the next, the Alto del Tejera.

What a start it's been, we're getting reports that only 45 riders are left in the front group.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney was won of the pre-race favourites, but sometimes things don't work out the you hope.

"Sometimes you just mentally crack," she said.

All the jerseys are in the front group at the moment, and while the peloton has re-formed plenty of riders are dropped already. It's going to be a very long hard day for them.

Though the average speed has dropped, we've got a very high pace on the climb with Lidl-Trek making it hard. The peloton has split in two.

120km to go

They're flying along at the moment, the average speed remains above 50km/h. No one will get away from that.

The climbing begins and the peloton is all together on the opening slopes of the climb.

Alto de Santo Emiliano

If anyone wants to establish a breakaway they need to get away quickly as the first of those climbs comes pretty soon. The Alto de Santo Emiliano starts after 10km, it's 5.2km and averages 5.9%. After a week's racing this'll be tough.

We've got four classified climbs, two third category, one second category and the final Especial category L'Angrilu to close the day. To add insult to injury there's an intermediate sprint between the last two climbs.

WE have lots of attacks at the front of the race.

We head west from the start, veering north for a clockwise loop, heading back on ourselves before taking a right turn to head for the final climb. It's winds and wends and is up and down all day.

Today is the queen stage, by far the toughest day of the seven stages, at 132.8 not only is it the longest, at 132.8km, it has the most climbing, with 3,271m of elevation and finishing at the top of L'Angrilu.

111 riders take to the start. There are more abandon this morning, Marie Le Net (FDJ UNited-SUEZ) did not start.

And here we go!
The flag has dropped and the final stage is go!

The flag has dropped

We're in Asturias now and in this part of Spain the weather is never too predictable. The forecast shows a cloudy day with a chance of some rain late on. It might get as warm as 20º with light winds from the south-east.

We're rolling for 4.5km of neutral, but who's in what jersey?

Who's leading the race after stage 6?

The climbs come straight from the gun today, so Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) is getting warmed up.

The teams are signed on, including race leader Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime).

The closing brutal stage to at the end of the toughest Vuelta Femenina to date.

The final moments of the battle for the overall title are set to be played out on the slopes of L'Angrilu.

Today's stage to the fabled climb of L'Angrilu could well bring more of the same attrition. We roll out at 10:25 local time, starting with 4.5km of neutral before getting the show on the road.

Friday's sixth stage to Less Praeres was a brutal race of attrition.

Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) routed her rivals to take the stage win and overall race lead.

Good morning, it's an early start for the final, race defining stage of this year's Vuelta Femenina, so thanks for joining our live coverage.