Vuelta a Espana stage 13 Live - A hilly finish in Montilla

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 13 of the Vuelta a España.

After Thursday's summit finish at Peñas Blancas, the Vuelta peloton is back in the hills today, though a less tough test as they race to Montilla.

The big news of the morning is the positive COVID-19 test of Juan Ayuso, who lies in fifth place. He'll continue in the race, though, due to a low viral load.

Juan Ayuso to continue at Vuelta a España despite positive COVID-19 test

Take a look at the map of today's stage here.

Plenty of hills on the route today, but none of them are classified so there's little to fight for during the stage.

A reminder of yesterday's stage result and the GC outlook after 12 stages.

The riders have gone to the start and are now rolling through the neutral zone.

147 riders start today's stage.

20 minutes in the neutral zone today so a bit to go before the real racing begins.

If you want to catch up with yesterday's action, check out our stage 12 report here

168km to go

The flag has dropped and the stage is underway!

Attacks fly from the very start of the stage.

162km to go

Three men are out front with a decent gap early on – Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH), and Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi)

The trio have quickly built a one-minute gap. This looks like the break of the day already...

155km to go

Trek-Segafredo, BikeExchange-Jayco, and Cofidis are working at the head of the peloton.

After a short uphill from the start, the riders are heading downhill for a spell, so it's a quick start.

Race leader Remco Evenepoel had this to say this morning following his crash yesterday...

"Everything is fine. I slept very well so I think everything is quite OK. The injuries look quite healed already so everything is fine.

"I hope it will be like two days ago, a normal sprint stage, a controlled race."

2:40 for the three breakaway men currently.

140km to go

The peloton are keeping the move on a pretty tight leash at the moment.

The sprint teams leading the peloton during stage 13.

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Evenepoel leading in battle against Roglič, Mas, Rodríguez, Ayuso, Almeida, López

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128km to go

Just over three minutes for the breakaway currently.

Van den Berg, Okamika, and Bou have all been in the break earlier on in this Vuelta

Dutchman Van den Berg was in the move on stages 2 and 3, where he took the mountain jersey on home soil.

Okamika was in the break on stages 3 and 4, too. Bou was out front on stages 4 and 11.

A fast first hour saw the riders zip along at 45kph.

108km to go

The peloton are holding the breakaway quite close. The gap is still only 2:20 at the moment.

A look at the breakaway out on the road today.

96km to go

Inside the final 100km of the stage now and race leader Evenepoel visits his team car.

2:25 for the breakaway currently.

The trio out front are still working well together at the moment.

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The same mix of sprint teams continue to lead the peloton as they head through the feed zone.

87km to go

Cofidis, Trek-Segafredo, and BikeExchange-Jayco are at the front currently.

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81km to go

2:30 between breakaway and peloton.

A shot of the peloton out on the course today.

A 43kph average speed after two hours of racing.

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65km to go

The gap from the peloton to breakaway has gone up in recent kilometres. It's up to 3:20 now.

Trek-Segafredo will be working for green jersey leader Mads Pedersen today. Cofidis are working for Bryan Coquard. BikeExchange-Jayco, meanwhile, are working for Kaden Groves.

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Cofidis are working for Coquard today but his teammate Davide Cimolai said earlier that the Frenchman is set to pull out of the Vuelta this evening in order to focus on other races.

The team are among several chasing UCI points as they bid to avoid relegation from the WorldTour.

54km to go

The riders are approaching the 50km mark now. Still nothing to compete over until they hit the day's only intermediate sprint, 14.4km from the finish.

Three minutes for the breakaway.

So far this stage has been as dull as the one from two days ago.

Okamika almost misjudges a corner in the break, correcting his course at the last moment to stop himself from running on down a closed-off road. On they go.

Bora-Hansgrohe have also come to the front of the peloton with BikExchange-Jayco, Cofidis, and Trek-Segafredo. The German team will be working for sprinter Danny van Poppel.

43km to go

In the past 5km, the peloton have shaved 30 seconds from the break's advantage. 2:30 now.

Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-Samsic) abandoned the race following a crash earlier in the day. 146 riders left in the race.

A 44.6kph average speed so far. And the break's advantage keeps coming down.

34km to go

Okamika, Van den Berg, and Bou have 1:40 now.

The gap continues to come down as the sprint teams up the pace.

Race leader Evenepoel safe in the peloton so far.

The gap is now heading down towards a minute. 1:10 now.

Now it goes under a minute as Trek-Segafredo continue to push on at high pace.

20km to go

After that push, the break's advantage is now down to 35 seconds.

Just over 5km to go to the intermediate sprint.

The pace is still high as the peloton speeds along in pursuit of the leading trio.

15km to go

It looks like the break will lead the way over the intermediate sprint. Still 15 seconds between them and the peloton.

Bou and Okamika lead the way over the sprint, which heads slightly uphill. Van den Berg drops away from his two companions.

Mads Pedersen led the peloton across the line for fourth.

14km to go

Just 10 seconds now as Van den Berg is caught.

13km to go

Bou and Okamika continue to fight on.

Ineos Grenadiers move to the front now.

11km to go

16 seconds for the two leaders now.

Trek, Arkéa, Ineos, BikeExchange, Jumbo among the teams up front in the peloton.

10km to go

Okamika pats Bou on the back, their day's work almost at an end.

The pair are caught and the break is over. All riders together now.

9km to go

The peloton spread across the wide road as the wind blows into them from the front.

Astana Qazaqstan are also represented at the front at the moment.

QuickStep, too.

7km to go

The peloton still spread wide across the road. No change in the situation yet as they head towards the finish.

The road kicks up at the 5km mark and it stays uphill most of the way to the line barring a brief dip.

6km to go

Still no moves yet. All the same sprint and GC teams at the front.

KOM leader Jay Vine up front working for his team in among the mix of different squads on the front.

4km to go

Still all together as the various teams push a hard pace up front.

Still a bit of a headwind blowing into the peloton.

Ineos organise further on the front as they keep racing up the climb.

3km to go

Four Ineos men up front. Trek and Movistar behind with Evenepoel among them.

Now Movistar come up, too.

Now Bahrain Victorious move up with Fred Wright.

Green jersey Pedersen is around 15 men back from the front.

2km to go

Movistar still in charge. Alpecin-Deceuninck move up.

They're on the flat section before it kicks up for the 700-metre rise to the line now.

1km to go

Now Alpecin massed at the front. Jumbo-Visma suddenly move up!

Around the right-hand turn before the rise to the line.

Jumbo-Visma lead it.

They're on the uphill stretch now.

Bora jump to the front taking it over.

Pedersen right up there. UAE take it up.

Ackermann goes long!

Pedersen gets on his wheel.

Ackermann went far too long and Pedersen comes around at around 150m to go.

Easy in the end for Pedersen, who swept past Ackermann.

Pedersen had three second places earlier in the race and now he finally gets his stage win.

Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) came through to take second place while Ackermann finished third. Wright finished fourth further back.

Ackermann must've gone with around 300 metres to go there, hoping to catch his rivals by surprise. Pedersen was right up front and was quick to react.

Nobody else was in the picture. Pedersen simply blazed past and rode the final 100 metres solo to take the win.

Pedersen celebrates his stage win.

Roglič the first of the GC men to come home, though he was down in ninth place. Evenepoel, Mas, Ayuso, Rodríguez finished further back but all safe in the peloton.

Here's what Mads Pedersen had to say about his stage victory.

"We knew that the final was super good so the boys did good today and everyone was focussed the whole day. I'm happy that I could finally get the win and give the boys back for all the work they did so far. It's really nice for all of us.

"Alex delivered me in the last corner so there was still 800m to go. It was perfect that [Jumbo-Visma] made a hard tempo and Pascal jumped early. It meant I could jump with him. It was along, long sprint, a 330-metre sprint today.

"It's super nice. We came here for a stage win and now we have won. We'll keep fighting to get one more. It's super nice with a comfortable lead in the points jersey. It'd be nice to have Sam Bennett here to fight for the points jersey. We keep fighting for the stages and we'll see how it goes."

The current GC standings in the 2022 Vuelta a España after stage 13

Remco Evenepoel maintains his lead on a day for the sprinters

Check out the action from the final kilometre of stage 13 below.

Mads Pedersen wins hilly stage 13 in Montilla at Vuelta a España

Dane beats Coquard and Ackermann in Montilla

Mads Pedersen celebrates his stage win on the podium.

Remco Evenepoel remains in the red jersey by 2:41.

Pedersen has only extended his green jersey points lead today. He now has 247 points to Marc Soler's 96.

On 40 points, Jay Vine is still secure in the polka dot mountain jersey. 

Finally, Evenepoel is still in the white jersey as best young rider.

We'll have more news coming in from the race this evening, so look out for that. That's the end of our live coverage for today, though.

Two big mountain stages coming over the weekend, so come back for more live coverage on Saturday and Sunday.