Vuelta a España stage 17 LIVE – GC action brewing on penultimate summit finish of race

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Vingegaard fourth, Almeida fifth, and Riccitello sixth, with some minor gaps of a few seconds between them.

Pidcock sprints to the line for second – and some bonus seconds.

Hindley third, so will also pick up some bonus seconds.

Pellizzari wins

It's victory in the white jersey for Pellizzari!

His first Grand Tour win, from a hugely strong group.

Nothing really happening in the red jersey group.

Almeida clearly not on a good day, and maybe Vingegaard isn't either if he's not trying to take advantage of that.

Pellizzari is going to win this.

Final kilometre

Pellizzari's gap is 35 seconds.

Riccitello attacks.

It's Pidcock who closes him down. Vingegaard and Almeida aren't getting involved in this fight for the podium and minor places.

Pellizzari could be on the way to a big win here.

It's Hindley who is on the front of the red jersey group, which should tell you that no one is chasing, because he certainly wouldn't be.

Pellizzari has nearly 30 seconds now, but 2.2km is a long way on a climb like this...

Almeida is holding on, but he's having to work for it.

The chasers including Gall are only 15 seconds or so behind the red jersey group.

Wow, Pellizzari has a proper gap now, 25 seconds.

The red jersey group just aren't chasing.. Well they are now as Riccitello accelerates again. Every push puts Almeida in trouble.

3km to go

Pellizzari has 12 seconds on the red jersey group.

Riccitello goes.

Him and Pellizzari are battling on the GC and for the white jersey. Pidcock follows, Almeida lets a gap open.

Pellizzari goes again, and he has a gap now.

Hindley isn't going to chase, and no one else wants to take responsibility either.

Most of Pellizzari's efforts will be to try and help Hindley, and put Pidcock in trouble.

And Hindley accelerates himself now. Pidcock is following everything.

Vingegaard and Almeida just exchanged some words.

Pellizzari goes!

Riccitello the first to try and chase him, and he's straight onto him.

It's a real waiting game. No one wants to attack yet.

Almeida just moves in front of Vingegaard.

It's Hindley vs Pidcock really on the front.

Almeida is just gluing himself to Vingegaard's wheel. Almost two separate races.

The gradients are 12% and up right now. Horrible.

Pellizzari is on the back now, Hindley leading the group.

Almeida does not look comfortable. He's hanging at the back of the group.

Pellizzari comes through to set the pace.

Pidcock is looking around, seeing who is here, but not attacking just yet.

Red Bull are in a great position with both Hindley and Pellizzari in this group.

5km to go

Six riders in the GC group now.

Almeida has ridden himself back up to the leaders.

Riccitello putting in a little dig here, but everyone sticks with it.

Hindley is setting the pace in a group of four up front – Tulett dropped.

Vingegaard is just biding his time.

Almeida is pushing on, with Pellizzari on his wheel, but dropping Træen.

Just under 3km into the climb, so surprising to see Almeida already struggling.

He's leading a group just a few seconds behind Vingegaard and co.

Hindley accelerates!

Pidcock is on his wheel. Vingegaard, Tulett and Riccitello follow, but Almeida can't.

Quite eery sight at the top of the mountain.

Recent forest fires have burnt down all the trees at the top. It's just a sea of black, burnt stumps.

Gall is dropping now, again.

Jorgenson has also gone from the front of the group to the back, without doing a proper turn – Tulett is still on the front. Pidcock is on his wheel.

Visma are setting a tough old pace here, just discouraging anyone else from trying anything.

Junior Lecerf is the one top-10 rider who is missing from the group. Gall, Træen and Riccitello all holding on for now.

Almeida is on the radio.

No one's coming to help him.

Pidcock is slotted in with Hindley in the middle of the Visma train.

There's a battle for the podium between those two riders.

Großschartner dropped too!

Almeida is now alone, whilst Vingegaard has three teammates with him.

Jay Vine is struggling and dropping out of the group, so just one teammate left with Almeida. That should be Felix Großschartner.

Ben Tulett is on the front right now, with Jorgenson behind him.

Vingegaard, Hindley and Pidcock are in the front too.

Gall is making contact with the back of the GC group, but Visma and UAE are battling at the front and keeping the pace high.

Bit of a sketchy moment at the entrance of the climb as the riders had to slow down because a race motorbike had crashed at the side of the road.

Think they got through okay.

Climb: Alto de EL Morredero (8.8km at 9.5%)

Here we go!

The GC group has just hit the official climb.

10km to go

It's all going to kick off soon I think.

Gall is dropping now. He has a teammate trying to pace him.

Aleotti just pulled off and ground to a halt. Big effort he did for Hindley.

Pellizzari takes over on the front of the GC group.

Less than 20 riders in the GC group now, and there's still 2.5km until the climb officially starts.

Felix Gall is near the back. He already lost some time yesterday.

Almeida has two riders with him in the front of the GC group.

Vingegaard has three.

And Samitier is caught.

GC action incoming!

Juan Ayuso drops from the peloton/GC group.

Almeida loses a helper before the climb even starts.

It's Red Bull, UAE, Visma in formation in the peloton right now.

Leemreize, Tiberi and Tejada have just been caught. Samitier alone up front, just a 10 second gap.

Samitier has gone solo up front, attacking the lead group.

The rest of the breakaway have all been swept up.

Nico Denz is putting in a crazy ride for Red Bull.

Samitier and Leemreize have just joined the leaders, so four are in the front, but only 33 seconds ahead of a speeding peloton.

6km to go until the start of the climb.

15km to go

We're on some really narrow roads going through villages before the start of the climb.

Red Bull are really taking the race on in the bunch.

Remember, Hindley only needs to take 32 seconds on Tom Pidcock to move onto the virtual podium.

Here's the peloton in full flight chasing the break.

Still super windy at the top of the climb, but no suggestion that there finish will be moved.

Visma has plenty of riders around Vingegaard, but they are sitting behind Red Bull and UAE.

Samitier, Leemreize and Gregaard are trying to chase Tiberi and Tejada.

The rest of the break are probably going to be caught soon.

Red Bull are also accelerating, trying to set something up for Hindley.

Visma have been a bit flooded out here.

Bahrain and Israel-Premier Tech are amassing at the front of the peloton.

Rider like Træen and Riccitello will see opportunities to move up the GC today.

Tiberi and Tejada are in the lead.

Tiberi and a few riders have split off from the rest of the breakaway again.

Plenty of riders dropping out of the peloton now.

The gap has dropped to 1:17 now.

25km to go

It's all winding up for the final climb.

UAE are staying out of the wind in the peloton.

Big groups of protesters and police in Ponferrada.

The break gets through fine, though.

This is one of the last days for the GC to change.

Tomorrow will of course also be key, with the TT in Valladolid, but with the disruption, there is a feeling that riders need to race every day, because they never know what stages could be changed.

The peloton is so strung out. The GC teams are ramping up the pace.

The gap isn't coming down too dramatically just yet. Still 1:50.

Up front, the break has regrouped again.

Tiberi is pushing on again in the break.

River and Tejada are following but they're putting other riders into trouble on this uncategorised climb.

The final climb starts in about 30km.

It's 8.8.km long, with a brutal average gradient of 9.5%.

Led by Tejada and Gregaard, the rest of the break have pulled those two escapees back.

40km to go

Van Boven and Timo Roosen have just broken off the front of the break after that sprint.

The gap is two minutes.

Sprint: Almazcara

Luca Van Boven wins the sprint.

There may be some kilometres to go signs missing on the climb up, however, so hopefully riders have done their homework (or have the details on their Garmin).

The finish line is being put up as planned at the top of the climb, despite the winds – which have dropped, but there are still gusts.

Dylan van Baarle and Wilco Kelderman have been on the front for probably nearly 100km today.

Visma-Lease a Bike are clearly laying down their intentions today.

They want to set up Vingegaard to take some more seconds today, and increase his buffer before tomorrow's time trial.

5km to go to today's intermediate sprint.

The break will take the points, most likely.

The break is still all 12 riders, by the way, despite some attempts on that climb.

It's speedy in the peloton right now, really strung out.

Update on the weather at the finish

The wind has apparently dropped dramatically, so not too concerned about the finish being disrupted by that anymore.

60km to go

This short-ish stage is rattling on.

KOM: Paso de las Travesias (cat 3)

Nicolau gets the maximum points over the first climb.

1. Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), 3 pts
2. Sergio Samitier (Cofidis), 2 pts
3. Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), 1 pt

70km to go

The break is splitting apart more now as the stronger riders try to push on.

The gap is coming down on this climb, it's 1:20 now.

The sprinters, including Pedersen, are starting to be dropped.

Visma are still setting the pace on this climb.

In the break, Tiberi is trying to push the pace.

Climb: Paso de las Traviesas (7.8km at 4.1%)

We're onto the first categorised climb of the day.

Things are regrouping in the peloton.

Split in the peloton

Big split in the bunch as the wind blows through an exposed section.

UAE especially need to take advantage of the finish today, if they want João Almeida to have a chance of closing the 48 second gap to Vingegaard.

The peloton aren't catching the break, they're just keeping them close so that the GC riders can contest the finish.

Bike change for Sepp Kuss, he's back racing very quickly.

Sounds like the organisers are hopeful that the finish will be fine, weather wise.

"For now, everything is still going to happen as normal regarding the finish," Fernando Escartín, Unipbulic race route organiser, told Spanish TV.

The weather has improved, at least.

It's nice and sunny now, not raining.

Already under 90km to go.

Dylan van Baarle doing what he does every day – controlling the break.

The gap is currently 1:35 according to the latest timings.

Visma really aren't letting this go at all. Two minutes seems the absolute max gap they're allowing.

The GC riders have missed a few chances to go head to head because of the protests, so there's even more motivation for today to be a GC day.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are also grouping at the front.

Time is running out for a rider like Jai Hindley to take enough time to move up onto the podium.

Part of the problem is that Harold Tejada is in the break, who is only 11 minutes down on GC and could threaten some of the riders in the top 10.

The gap is two minutes at the moment, but Visma are controlling it in the peloton.

Seems like the break aren't fully happy with this situation, with 12 of them and a small gap.

Some riders are trying to break things up further.

100km to go

That first 43km went quickly!

It looks like we have our breakaway of the day, though not sure how much of a gap the peloton are going to give them.

The uncertainty over how the finish could play out is probably making the peloton keep the group close.

Some blue sky peeking through.

Aparicio is caught and no longer chasing the break.

The gap is around 1:45, so not fully ballooning just yet.

As well as protesters, wind could be an issue today. Have heard that this morning, the organisers couldn't erect the finish at the top of the final climb because of high gusts.

If it doesn't die down, the finish line could be moved 5km down the final climb.

Anders Mielke was trying to drum up some positivity at the start.

Ben Turner has a nice new motto for us: "Put a smile on your face, then we can race."

12 riders in the lead

The chasers have caught the leaders, making in 12 in the lead.

The chasing group of four are only 10 seconds down on the leaders, so they should join them soon.

Aparicio is a bit further back, but the peloton seem happy to let these riders go away.

Here's the leading group of eight, just after they got away.

Another rider is also chasing, Mario Aparicio from Burgos Burpellet BH.

The leaders are nearly two minutes ahead of the bunch now.

Yes, four riders are trying to cross the bridge between the peloton and the leaders.

They are: Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Léandre Lozouet (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Sergio Samitier (Cofidis) and Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL).

110km to go

The gap is pulling out towards a minute, and I think there's someone chasing in between the peloton and the break.

The riders in the lead are:

Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers), Madis Mikhels (EF Education-EasyPost), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Patrick Gamper (Jayco AlUla), Timo Roosen (Picnic PostNL), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), Luca van Boven (Intermarché-Wanty) and Jonas Gregaard (Lotto).

They have 15 seconds, let's see if this sticks.

A group of eight riders have attacked now and have a small gap.

Here's Victor Langellotti having a go.

Ineos clearly want to keep the momentum going after Bernal's win yesterday.

120km to go

We could be in for another long battle for the break.

The roads are rolling but the first categorised climb doesn't come until 75km have already been raced.

This is also the level of focus I bring to these lives. Locked in.

Back together again.

15km done so far.

The peloton has split – around 30 riders are in a big front group.

Kwiatkowski is reeled back in.

A LOT of breakaways have made it to the finish in this race, so there's going to be a big fight to get away today. Teams won't let anything go if they don't have a rider in it, nor will the GC riders want anyone threatening to be given any gap.

Kwiatkowski is trying again.

More shaved heads incoming?

Here's the riders passing kilometre zero this morning.

That weather does not look enticing.

And that group has been reeled in after 7km.

The fight for the break continues!

Seven riders in the lead

The Ineos Grenadiers duo of Magnus Sheffield and Michal Kwiatkowski joined the five already up the road: Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Bjoern Koerdt (Picnic PostNL) and Jonas Gregaard (Lotto).

Elsewhere, the second stage of the Tour de l'Ardèche has also been cancelled due to fear of protests.

The 'Bloquons Touts' – 'block everything' – movement has been causing chaos in France. They're a left-wing movement trying to cause a nationwide shutdown today in response to the French government's austerity measures.

Five riders are in the lead with a small gap... Will update on who they are when I can.

Riders are immediately attacking. A group of four has broken away early, but the last few stages tell us that this could take a while...

Today is the penultimate summit finish of the race, with the final one coming on stage 20 atop Bola del Mundo.

There are 11 summit finishes in this race in total, which is rather a lot.

Official start

And we're racing!

143km to go until the finish atop the steep Alto de El Morredero climb.

There were Palestinian flags and police at the start this morning.

A couple of riders, including Jonas Vingegaard, punctured in the same section of road yesterday.

There is some suggestion that thumb tacks (drawing pins) were deliberately placed on the road to cause this.

Here's what Jack Haig had to say on behalf of the CPA.

Here's some more on the rider vote that took place this morning.

'We are just the pawns in a very large chess game' - Riders vote to neutralise Vuelta a España if stage 17 affected by protests

Doesn't sound like we had any non-starters this morning, but I'll let you know if that changes.

Neutral start

And they're off for a 4.7km neutral!

Important duties for the red jersey.

Just a few minutes until the riders roll out for the neutral start.

It's 4.7km long today.

Hard job to be a commentator on a rainy day, because what team even is this?

The riders have voted to stop today if more protests disrupt the stage.

According to Daniel Friebe of The Cycling Podcast, the peloton just aren't keen to race revised finishes like yesterday.

Here's a reminder of what's coming up for the riders today.

After yesterday's final climb was cut, we didn't see much of a GC fight, so will the overall contenders want to change that today?

Egan Bernal had a moment on the podium to celebrate his win from yesterday.

The stage starts in about half an hour.

The teams will be finishing sign-on soon.

Here's what the teams have said about the incident yesterday.

We're hearing riders have been discussing what to do if disruption continues. We'll have some more on that soon.

'Do everything possible to secure the event' – Visma-Lease a Bike call on Vuelta a España to act and public not to interfere

'A re-run of the Bilbao stage'- UAE Team Emirates-XRG management respects Vuelta a España organisers’ decision to conclude the stage early

The weather at the start does look quite grim, very wet.

In some more lighthearted news, this was how Ineos celebrated Egan Bernal's win yesterday.

It was his first win outside of the national champs in over four years.

Ineos Grenadiers riders shave their heads in celebration of Egan Bernal's first Grand Tour win since life-threatening crash

A meeting of the CSD (Consejo Superior de Deportes) Security Board is being held today, to try to ensure that "the appropriate measures are adopted regarding the proper conduct of La Vuelta, while guaranteeing freedom of expression and the safety and integrity of the athletes."

It's worth noting that the CSD's message to the press also said that "the CSD shares the public's outrage at the flagrant violation of human rights in Gaza" but that "freedom of expression must always be exercised without putting the physical safety of the cyclists at risk".

Here's the scenes at the start this morning.

We were expecting more protesters again, but it's fairly quiet, with only a light police presence.

More umbrellas than flags as the rain drizzles in O Barco de Valdeorras.

Despite yesterday's stage being shortened – again – due to protests, the race is due to carry on as normal today.

If you missed any of what happened yesterday, my colleague on the ground Alasdair Fotheringham tells the inside story.

'It's a crazy situation and it will be getting worse' - First-person account on how stage 16 of Vuelta a España descended into chaos

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 17 of the Vuelta a España.