Vuelta a España stage 14 – Live coverage

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 14 of the Vuelta a España,

After yesterday's time trial we remain in Galicia in north-west Spain today for a long and rolling stage towards an uphill finish in Ourense.

It looks like a possible day for the breakaway today. The finale is uphill – 1.1km at 6.5 per cent, so the sprinter's teams shouldn't be working hard to bring things back. Meanwhile, the GC men are likely to lose ground to Roglič, who has the strongest kick of the podium contenders, so the likes of Ineos Grenadiers and EF Pro Cycling might not work only to possibly lose a few more seconds at the line.

Here's our report on yesterday's stage, which saw Primož Roglič retake the red jersey in the only time trial of the race.

205km to go

Riders have exited the neutralised zone and the race is on.

A small group is away right from the start, though they aren't far ahead of the peloton.

197km to go

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Martin Salmon (Sunweb), Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Michael Schwarzmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale), Stan Dewulf (Lotto Soudal) and Gino Mäder (NTT Pro Cycling) are the men on the move.

Mitchelton-Scott lead the peloton at the moment.

190km to go

Now the peloton has brought that group back and another small group try their luck.

That group has been caught, though. Still no breakaway at the moment.

ISN are down a rider as Alexis Renard abandons.

180km to go

Jumbo-Visma climber Sepp Kuss is among the riders on the move.

He's joined by Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Marc Soler, Carlos Verona (Movistar), Ian Garrison (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Jasha Sütterlin (Sunweb), Dorian Godon (AG2R La Mondiale), with more riders trying to get away, too.

That group has swelled considerably. 26 riders are out front now.

We'll see if the peloton let them ride away.

165km to go

Nope. The group has been caught and so the battle for the break continues.

Guillaume Martin, Soler and Wellens are trying again. Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers) and Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) are also on the move.

Martin has dropped back to the peloton as Jumbo-Visma do the work.

155km to go

Reinard Janse Van Rensburg (NTT) and Willie Smit (Burgos-BH) are trying to get across to Stybar, Van Baarle, Woods, Wellens and Soler.

The gap is 30 seconds.

A 49kph average pace in the first hour of racing.

150km to go

Thymen Arensman (Sunweb), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis) and Carlos Barbero (NTT Pro Cycling) have made it across, while Lennard Hofsted (Jumbo-Visma) and Ion Izagirre (Astana) have also attacked to try and get there.

So now eight out front with a gap of only around 30 seconds.

Barbero is dropped from the front group and he's caught by the two chasers.

And now Barbero, Hofstede and Izagirre have been caught.

The break at the moment: Zdenek Štybar (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Marc Soler (Movistar), Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers), Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling), Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Thymen Arensman (Sunweb), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis).

They're a minute up on the peloton.

The riders are still some 50km away from the first classified climb of the day. There's plenty of rolling road to tackle before that, though.

The peloton has let that group go now. Astana lead the way and the gap is up to three minutes.

The makeup of the break is interesting, of course. We have a man apiece from EF, Ineos and Movistar out front. The summit of today's final climb – the Alto de Abelaira – lies 22.7km from the line. At 7.6km and a gradient of just 3.8 per cent it's hardly prime Roglič ambush territory but hey, there's a chance we might see Carthy, Carapaz or Mas have a go.

Here's what Tim Wellens had to say about today's stage.

"I think today, tomorrow, and the day after are really nice stages where the breakaway will go to the end. Of course everybody wants to be in the breakaway today. The finish suits me perfectly.

"It's the same kind of stage than the fifth stage, when I won. I don't think we can complain [about the weather conditions]. We're very lucky with the weather. Tomorrow we have a very long stage and it seems to be good weather. Today is a little bit cold but it’s not a problem."

110km to go

The average speed over the first two hours of racing was 44kph. The break is now 5:20 up the road and they're heading downhill on the way to the first climb of the day.

Martin Salmon (Sunweb) has left the race, suffering from fatigue on his Grand Tour debut.

The break has started climbing the first classified climb of the day – the Alto de Escairon, which is 8.7km long at an average of 3.3 per cent.

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92km to go

Périchon takes the points over the top of the climb, defending his teammate Martin's humungous KOM lead from any possible challenge. The break are just under five minutes up on the peloton.

Guillaume Martin, who tried to make the break today and has battled for stage wins so far this Vuelta...

"We have four days ahead of us to be aggressive. We’ve seen team Cofidis attack in La Vuelta and it will be like that for this final week also. Today, there aren’t main difficulties mais it looks difficult all day long. I think it favours a breakaway. It’s a tricky finale, with small roads and an uphill finish."

Niki Terpstra (Total Direct Energie) was among a few riders caught up in a feed zone crash. He looks OK though.

Astana continue to lead the peloton, meanwhile.

75km to go

Štybar led the break over the intermediate sprint. They're on their way to the next climb, the Alto de Guitara.

Astana still on the front of the peloton. Deceuninck-QuickStep are lined up behind them, followed by EF Pro Cycling.

70km to go

And now they hit the climb. It's 7.8km long at an average of 3.8 per cent.

The break are still working well together and the gap remains stable at around the five-minute mark.

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Wellens led Périchon over the Alto de Guitara. He has taken five KOM points today, and now lies 49 points down on Martin.

48km to go

Total Direct Energie take over at the front of the peloton ahead of Lotto Soudal as the break reach the final 50km of the day.

The break's advantage is down to four minutes now. Still the same men out front, no change.

Roglič has a bike issue and gets a new one. No worries for the race leader though.

42km to go

Roglič is safely back in the peloton now.

Just one climb left, another third-cat, the Alto de Abelaira. They riders hit that at 30km to go.

36km to go

Under three minutes for the break.

A shot of the peloton from earlier on today.

Now the break begin the final climb of the day. The Aldo de Abelaira is 7.6km long at an average of 3.8 per cent.

The pace ups in the peloton on the climb. They're under two minutes back now as riders are spat out the back. Total Direct Energie and Jumbo-Visma on the front.

26km to go

140 to the break now as Périchon drops a few bike lengths. Woods pushes on up front ahead of Soler.

Just one man remains for Total Direct Energie on the front of the peloton now.

Périchon gone from the break now. Six men together.

20km to go

Woods led Soler and Wellens over the top. No moves from the peloton, which lies two minutes down.

The peloton really slowed down after the climb with no team taking control. As a result, the gap has jumped out to 2:55.

14km to go

The break fly down the descent. The gap is up to 3:20 now.

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The break has split during a technical part of the descent. Štybar and Soler are up front with Wellens chasing across. Woods, Arensman and Van Baarle are further back.

11km to go

Three vs three up front now. There's a 13-second gap.

The peloton is four minutes down as the riders reach the final 10km.

The chase group are not making any inroads into the leaders.

5km to go

The lead trio pass under the 5km mark and they still have 13-14 seconds.

Wellens, Soler and Štybar are working well together and pushing on. They'll have to keep going all the way to the final metres of the stage though.

3km to go

The gap went from 13 to 10 seconds during Štybar's latest turn on the front...

2km to go

Now it's down to 7 seconds. Yikes.

1km to go

And they've made it across to the leaders just before the climb to the line. Not great by the lead trio...

The final kilometre averages a 5.6 per cent gradient.

700m to go

Woods leads the group up.

500m to go

Wellens moves up and passes Woods.

Arensman drops. Wellens leads around the twisting run to the line.

Wellens vs Woods in the final 150 metres!

Wellens – vitally – had the inside line around the final corner and managed to hold off Woods to take the win.

Wellens had done his homework on that finish and simply had less distance to travel around the final bends, even if Woods looked like he was going to pull past.

The peloton, which is rapidly thinning, heads up the final climb. No major attacks.

The GC men are all together as they chase down an attack from Caja Rural's Gonzalo Serrano.

Dan Martin gets a small gap at the finish but not enough for any time gains.

Well it wasn't a thriller but they had a good fight over the final 15 kilometres or so. Four days left of the Vuelta, and of WorldTour racing in 2020.

Here's what Wellens had to say after the finish.

"It's not easy to win, I had to really fight to get in the breakaway, and all my companions in the breakaway were really strong riders. The whole day we rode a super good tempo. In the descent we got a way with three, I thought we were going to stay in front but the other three came back. I knew I had to take the last corner in the first position. I felt Woods coming but suddenly the finish line was there and I passed first."

"We came here with the team to get a minimum one stage victory. Then when we had the first one they kept putting pressure for the second one. I knew today was a day that suited me very well, I was looking forward to this day for a long time. It's one thing to look forward to a day but the other thing you have to be in the right position, be in the breakaway and have the right legs and today everything went perfect."

A shot of the finish, with Wellens beating Woods to the line.

Here's our race report for stage 14

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