Vuelta a España stage 14: LIVE - Soler leads solo on final climb as UAE chase for Almeida

Four kilometres left to climb. Soler leads the race by 1:45 with the GC group working steadily behind.

Jorgenson and Tejada drop away from the diminishing GC group.

Soler continues to extend his lead over the chasers, and with the GC group still 2:43 behind, he looks capable of taking yet another stage victory for UAE Team Emirates. He would be the fourth different rider to win for the team at this Vuelta.

5km to go

Vine is finally done for the day - he hands over to Felix Grossschartner.

Still present in the GC group aside from Almeida and his two teammates: Jonas Vingegaard with two teammates (Kuss and Jorgenson), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech), Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco-AlUla), Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon-AG2R), Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious), Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull) and Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana).

The gap is down to 2:45.

Staune-Mittet continues to work hard in second place on the road as Soler's gap to him ekes out to 1:15.

Vine leads the bunch now resplendent in the blue and white polka dot jersey. Soler leads by a minute now, with the gap back to the GC group continuing to hover around the 3:20 mark.

9 kilometres remain on the climb, with the second half of the climb noticeably tougher than the first half.

Soler is now almost a minute ahead of the chaser, Staune-Mittet.

The red jersey group consists of just 14 riders now.

12 kilometres remain on the climb, with Soler continuing to lead solo. He is working hard. The gap remains at 3:14 - Almeida has three teammates once again, as Bjerg continues his huge effort, tongue hanging out as he gives everything on the climb - he looks to be about ready to clock off for the day.

Soler leads the race while his teammate Bjerg drives the pace in the bunch.

The climb is well underway and Soler leads the race solo, with the chaser just over 10 seconds behind and the rest of the group at 21 seconds. The gap to the peloton is at 3:14.

'Crazy' - the judgement from Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly on Marc Soler's attack. They believe UAE Team Emirates should be uniting behind Almeida, with Soler conserving energy to serve as a satellite rider for his leader.

15km to go

Jay Vine is heading back up the bunch having looked to have been dropped.

At the head of the race Soler has company in Johannes Staune-Mittet of Decathlon. Soler attacks again and drops the Norwegian.

Jay Vine also drops out of the chase - Almeida doesn't have many teammates left with him now, with another big climb still to come. Bjerg has come back from the break and is helping but other than that, Almeida only has Grossschartner left with him.

With around two kilometres to the official start of the climb, the road is already kicking up, and Soler attacks from the breakaway.

The gap hovers around 3:20 from the breakaway back to the red jersey group. A number of teams have an interest in helping with the pace-setting, meaning that Visma | Lease a Bike haven't had to work at all on the climbs today, despite the fact they still have the race lead.

Having said that - Ayuso is done for the day. He drops away, leaving the pace-setting to Jay Vine - though it's actually Red Bull who take over now, as Victor Campanaerts arrives back from his earlier efforts in the breakaway.

20km to go

Ayuso has certainly put in the hard yards for his team today. He continues to lead the bunch heading towards the final climb.

Nico Denz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) leads the peloton into the descent.

Just a few kilometres remain until the final climb of the day - the climb up to La Farrapona is 16.9 kilometres in length at an average gradient of 5.9%.

25km to go

30km to go

EF Education-EasyPost's James Shaw takes the maximum points at the summit of the San Lorenzo climb, and Shaw attacks into the descent, as the gap drops to 3:20.

While UAE lead the peloton, their sole remaining representative in the break, Marc Soler, is performing in his characteristic style, dropping away and then working his way back on again - he remains part of the the lead group for now.

At the front of the race, Bagioli is caught by the 11-man chase group - which still contains three of Decathlon's four original breakaway riders.

Juan Ayuso continues to work for his team, riding at the head of the peloton. The gap has dropped to 3:40, and what looked set to be a day for the breakaway seems to be turning in favour of the GC riders, though it hangs in the balance.

35km to go

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) is the next GC rider to drop away from the group.

Bagioli continues to lead, with the chase group now down to just 11 riders around 20 seconds behind him.

The peloton are surging into the gap though, under the pace-setting from UAE, and it now stands at just 3:40.

Ayuso takes over at the front of the bunch for UAE Team Emirates.

The race is all over the road, the brutality of these slopes really beginning to tell. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) is the next GC contender to drop - his teammates Filippo Ganna and Ben Turner are with him.

The gap is dropping fast under the pressure from UAE Team Emirates and is now down to 4:15. Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe join the chase.

The breakaway is in pieces now, with Garofoli caught and others dropping away, including Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) and Jan Hirt (Israel-Premier Tech).

Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) is the next rider to move clear at the head of the race.

The breakaway group begins to splinter under the strain of the steep gradient - Bjerg and Campanaerts both slide back.

Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) is dropped from the peloton.

With just over 5 kilometres left for the breakaway to climb, Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-QuickStep) attacks - Leemreize is caught.

UAE have deployed their full train at the head of the chasing peloton, and the group is slimming down under their brisk pace-setting.

UAE Team Emirates have taken up the pace-setting at the front of the chasing peloton.

There's no initial response to Leemreize's acceleration - he opens up a modest 10-second gap, and the rest of the group follow on behind at a steady tempo.

40km to go

The first attack from the breakaway comes from Gijs Leemreize - he pushes clear of the rest with 7.4 kilometres left to climb.

The breakaway take on the lower slopes of the climb steadily, led by Decathlon-AG2R.

The climbing begins.

The gap drops down to 5:30 and continues to fall.

Two kilometres to the start of the San Lorenzo climb.

The gap from the break to the bunch holds at 6:00.

Dion Smith (Intermarché-Wanty) takes the intermediate sprint, though it's uncontested.

The road heads steadily uphill from this point onwards, and the intermediate sprint point will come and go without being contested, with none of the green jersey contenders present within the group.

The riders in the break take a few moments to take on fuel and hydration, and visit the support car, ahead of the climb. Nine former Grand Tour winners feature in this group - will one of them use their experience to triumph, or will a new rider write their name into history as the winner of a stage of La Vuelta a España?

The calm before the storm. The gap settles at six minutes, and the breakaway prepare to face arguably the toughest challenge of the day: the category 1 San Lorenzo climb. 10.1 kilometres in length, the climb's average gradient of 8.5% will be savage on the legs, especially considering yesterday's efforts.

60km to go

The group of leaders stays together with 54 kilometres remaining and the gap to the peloton has ballooned out over six minutes - it currently stands at 6:20 and it's almost certain now that the winner of today's stage will be one of these 24 riders.

Meanwhile, a GC battle may commence later on, within the peloton, following yesterday's decisive stage that concluded on the summit of Angliru.

Read about a memorable day on the slopes of one of Spain's most iconic climbs.

Mikkel Bjerg encourages cooperation in the lead group, who are looking more and more likely to be in contention for the stage victory.

Marc Soler was first over the summit, defending the KOM lead of his teammate Jay Vine.

Onto the descent, and there are around 25 kilometres ahead before the first of two significant category 1 challenges that will define the day's outcome. Staune-Mittet forges clear on the descent with Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) but everything comes back together.

Soler was second the last time the race visited the finishing climb, with Gaudu the winner on that day.

The gap pushes out to 5:30.

60km to go

The breakaway reach the summit of the climb and Decathlon take over the pace-setting once again. The gap has extended to five minutes now.

Winner on stage 3, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) looks to be struggling at the back of the peloton.

There's a lot of looking around in the breakaway, but despite this, the gap moves out to 4:30 again, as the bunch knocks off the pace.

Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale drive the breakaway earlier on in stage 14. They have the numbers in the group with four riders.

The breakaway has arrived at the category 3 Alto del Tenebreo - 5.8kms at an average gradient of 6.5%, Mikkel Bjerg sets the pace on the lower slopes of the climb.

70km to go

That's an astonishing comeback. Campanaerts and Leemreize have been able to make contact with the breakaway, following a chase that looked to be doomed. They take advantage of the drop in pace to bridge back to the group, a really remarkable effort on the part of the Belgian and the Dutchman.

The first categorised climb arrives shortly, but it's nothing compared to the two challenges that await on today's stage.

Two category 1 climbs, increasing in length, will decide today's stage winner, and potentially see further action on the GC.

The gap begins to fall as the games begin in the break, with not everyone pulling their weight.

Visma | Lease a Bike drive the chase, riding tempo for now, but the gap still drops to 4:20.

80km to go

Campanaerts still hasn't given up the ghost entirely - he's 1:46 behind the lead group, riding with Gijs Leeimreize of Team Picnic-PostNL.

The gap has steadied once again at 4:40.

Xabier Azparren (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) has finally made it across to the breakaway group, after an incredible fight. He will hope to be allowed to sit on for a while and recover after an immense effort.

The group are now 22-strong once again. The best represented team is Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale who have four cards to play within the group, and find themselves in a very strong position. In addition to Armirail, they have Jordan Labrosse, Léo Bisiaux and Johannes Staune-Mittet.

With 88 kilometres to race, the gap continues to stretch out - it's well over four minutes now, indicating it could be a good day for the breakaway.

The first categorised climb of the day is approaching. It's a category 3 climb and the break will reach it in around 20 kilometres' time.

Today's breakaway powers towards the first categorised climb of the day

The gap has extended to four minutes, as Campanaerts appears to concede his effort - he'll likely slide back to the peloton now.

90km to go

Campanaerts is finally delivered a bike from his team car and sets about trying to make up the deficit, he's 1:40 behind the break now, truly trapped in a chasse patate - but if anyone can make it across in this kind of situation, it's Campanaerts.

Azparren continues to chase the lead group - he's around 30 seconds behind them. Campanaerts is just over a minute behind the leaders, still waiting on his own bike.

The gap to the break has stabilised at 3:30.

100km to go

A nightmare for Campanaerts - he is struggling to make up the lost ground as he rides the neutral service bike - he needs his own replacement bike but his team car hasn't yet made it up to him.

The gap grows out over three minutes, as Campanaerts has to stop with a mechanical issue. He has to take service from the Shimano team.

See above for the full list of riders in today's sizeable breakaway. From the two top teams in the race, UAE boast two riders in the break - Marc Soler and Mikkel Bjerg - while Visma | Lease a Bike have a sole representative in Victor Campanaerts.

With the breakaway established, the peloton begins to allow the gap to grow. It's currently up to 1:30.

The break comprises some 22 riders, with the closest on GC Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), who sits 12:04 behind the race leader Jonas Vingegaard.

There are still three riders labouring in between the break and the peloton.

110km to go

And it's done. The peloton eases their foot off the gas and riders begin to take natural breaks as at the head of the race, a group numbering around 30 riders establishes itself as the day's early break, after 22 kilometres of action.

A chasing group of three - Asparren (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep) and a rider from Team Picnic-PostNL - are trying to bridge to the lead group.

A large group are around 10 seconds clear of the bunch. Could this be the day's early breakaway?

Bjerg attacks again and forces a split in the group, with around 15 riders clear of the remainder of the peloton.

Victor Campanaerts catches the group and moves to the front - everything is back together again as the race heads through a town.

120km to go

Wheel change for Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers). He's back on his way.

The chasing group swells to around 10 riders but they don't have much room. Mikkel Bjerg is present for UAE Team Emirates and he drives the pace, gathering up Pickering and with UAE's presence in the break, Visma lead the chase behind.

Pickering catches and passes Rickaert to become the sole leader of the race, but attacks continue to pour forth in his wake, with the bunch in bits behind.

A group of six now detaches from the front of the peloton and sets off in pursuit of Pickering.

Pickering continues to labour in between Rickaert and the rest of the bunch, as Buitrago drops back. A rider from EF is trying to bridge to the young Brit.

Rickaert leads by 15 seconds currently as further attacks launch behind - but nothing sticks.

Bahrain Victorious now take up the initiative, with Finlay Pickering getting a gap - his teammate Santiago Buitrago bridges to his wheel.

With Rickaert still alone at the head of the read, the attacks continue behind, with the peloton stretched out into a long line and the bunch splits under the pressure as the road heads downhill.

A large group pulls clear of the bunch - a Visma rider follows, whether to be a part of the break or simply to review the composition of the group is unclear.

130km to go

Visma | Lease a Bike launch the next round of attacks.

Rickaert continues to lead solo - he led stage 9 of the Tour de France alongside his teammate Mathieu van der Poel back in July, winning the combativity prize for the day for his efforts. He'll hope for some company very soon otherwise it could be a long day out for the 31-year-old Belgian.

We're underway and the first attacker has launched - it's Alpecin-Deceuninck's Jonas Rickaert and he's currently solo. Who will join him?

The next attack comes from EF Education-EasyPost.

Just over a kilometre remaining ahead of flag drop in this 14th stage of La Vuelta.

Press release from Israel-Premier Tech regarding the change of jersey.

Protesters have disrupted the neutralised start of today's race, amid news that the Israel-Premier Tech team ride today's stage with rebranded jerseys, the Israel logo removed from the front of the jersey.

The race is now continuing following minor disruption.

Protests disrupt race start

News of one rider withdrawal to bring you - Sergio Higuita (XDS Astana) will not begin stage 14. The team's update on Higuita is below.

Today's stage profile begins with some rolling terrain, ahead of three categorised climbs, the first of these arriving after 63 kilometres.

Read the full preview of today's stage here.

The riders have rolled out and are covering the neutralised section ahead of flag drop.

The jersey wearers ahead of today's stage.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) maintains his iron grip on the green points jersey following another strong climbing performance on stage 13.

Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe's Giulio Pellizzari continues to lead the white jersey classification as best young rider, and Almeida's teammate Jay Vine continues in the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey, following his excellent race so far, picking up two stage victories.

The state of play ahead of today's action is as follows.

Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) retains the red jersey as GC leader for the fourth consecutive day. He leads by 46 seconds, ahead of UAE Team Emirates' João Almeida. Almeida took victory ahead of Vingegaard on yesterday's stage, and will draw confidence from that ahead of another tough day in the mountains.

Today's stage begins in Avilés and travels 135.9 kilometres to La Farrapona for another summit finish at Lagos de Somiedo.

Despite being a relatively short stage, the peloton still have 3,805 metres of altitude gain to contend with, and there will be some tired legs among the bunch following yesterday's brutal ascent of the Angliru.

Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of stage 14 of La Vuelta a España. Stay with us for updates throughout the afternoon of all the action from a second day in the mountains of Asturias.