0km - The time is ticking away for Rodriguez... the overnight race leader still has one Saxo Bank rider on his wheel as he approaches the finish line, and concedes a huge 2:37. Behind him, Hernandez smiles and clenches his fist... what an image.

0km - What a victory for Alberto Contador, who solos over the line to win the stage and take the red jersey!

1km - Sky's Sergio Henao is leading the chase as Valverde puts in a dig. One kilometre to go. The gap is 14 seconds.

2km - The gap is tumbling for Contador vis-a-vis the chasing group. He'll still be in red tonight, but the stage win is not a certainty - Valverde is getting stronger and stronger, and is just 15 seconds back.

4km - Joaquim Rodriguez has ridden a near-flawless Vuelta until today, when it has just imploded. He was caught out and now has no team-mates. To add insult to injury, every time he turns round he can see Saxo Bank team-mates Hernandez and Paulinho.

5.5km - The Valverde trio has caught the remnants of the initial break - including the likes of Henao, Verdugo, Mondory and that man Tiralongo.

8km - Contador nears the start of the climb. He has 1:21 on the Valverde chasing group and 2:30 on the Rodriguez group, which includes his Saxo team-mates Hernandez and Paulinho.

10km - Contador passes under the 10km-to-go banner. He has 1:40 over Valverde and Quintana, and more importantly, he has 2:25 over Rodriguez.

12km - Contador is time trialing towards the start of this final climb. Valverde has Quintana with him, band they have dropped Rodriguez!

15km - There it is: the Saxo Bank-Tinkoff car handing out a new bidon to Paolo Tiralongo. This could well be the winning move of the Vuelta - and that old friendship is proving so important.

20km - Contador and Tiralongo have gone on the attack! They have dropped the other escapees and the two friends and former team-mates are on a mission.

23km - Of course, Contador effectively has another team-mate in this group in Paolo Tiralongo: the pair were team-mates at Astana and in last year's Giro, Contador gifted a win to his friend. It's clearly pay-back time: Tiralongo is putting in a huge pull on the front of the leading group...

26km - The gap keeps on growing: 1:10 now for the Contador leading group.

35km - The lead of the Contador break is now up to 40 seconds on the chasing Rodriguez group - that puts the Saxo Bank man in the virtual red jersey.

44km - The Contador leading group has 20 seconds on the chasing trio of Rodriguez, Valverde and Losada, and 1:22 over the peloton containing Froome and Gesink.

48km - Contador has joined the leading group, which has 16 seconds over Rodriguez, Valverde and Katusha's Alberto Losada. Meanwhile, the main pack containing the likes of Chris Froome and Robert Gesink is 55 seconds back.

51km - Contador has 15 seconds over red jersey Joaquim Rodriguez and white jersey Alejandro Valverde.

54km - The next climb starts right away: it's the Cat.2 Collado La Hoz (5.7km at 7.6% and a rise of 435m).

62km - Arnold Jeannesson crosses the summit of the Collado de Ozalba ahead of Niki Terpstra and Alessandro Ballan. With three, two and one point respectively, this has no impact on the kind of the mountains standings.

63km - Mikel Astarloza has joined Ballan out ahead. Jeannesson has caught the chasing group, while Lars Boom has now been caught by the peoton. It's all pretty close, with only 40-odd seconds separating the front of the race and the peloton.

65km - Alessandro Ballan attacks from the leading group!

67km - Colombian sprinter Leonardo Duque loses contact with the leading group on this short but sharp climb.

70km - We're onto the first climb of the day, the Cat.3 Collado de Ozalba (5.9km long at an average gradient of 6.6% and a total rise of 395 metres). The break starts the climb with only one minute to play with over the chasing pack.

80km - The reason why Javier Ramirez needed to see the medical car was that a stone flew up and his his nose, causing him a small cut. It must have come from under the wheels of a passing car or one of his fellow escapees. The Spaniard is okay now and rides along with the leading riders.

90km - Javier Ramirez, one of the escapees, needs some medical attention. The gap is down to two minutes for the 11 leaders.

98km - Lloyd Mondory, who was part of the break in stage 15 to Lagos de Covadonga, takes the intermediate sprint ahead of Bruno Pires and Leonardo Duque. But it's pretty much uncontested. The peloton is being led by Katusha and Garmin-Sharp, neither of whom have any riders in this 11-man break.

105km - This looks promising: a group of 11 riders has opened up a gap on the front of the peloton. They are Leonardo Duque (Cofidis), Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM), Danny Pate (Sky), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Lloyd Mondory (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Alessandro Ballan (BMC), Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel), Lars Boom (Rabobank), Bruno Pires (Saxo Bank), Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Javier Ramirez (Andalucia).

120km - Last year's overall winner, Juan Jose Cobo, is passing by his hometown of Cabezon de la Sal. The Spaniard has not had a very good race: he's currently one hour and 27 minutes down in 62nd place after having ridden a race largely in support of his in-form Movistar team-mate Valverde.

125km - Katusha are doing their best to bring leader Rodriguez back into the first group. The gap is 14 seconds at the moment.

130km - Simon Clarke, the polka dot jersey, is one of 19 riders who make a move off the front. But once again, they are reabsorbed by the peloton.

135km - A reminder that Alejandro Valverde is still wearing the green jersey although he trails Joaquim Rodriguez by 164 points to 139 in the green jersey standings. Rodriguez, as well as being the red jersey, leads the combined competition, for which Alberto Contador wears the leader's white jersey by default. Australian Simon Clarke is in polka dots as the kind of the mountains. The Orica-GreenEdge rider leads Rodriguez by two slender points.

150km - Sky's Rigoberto Uran and Euskaltel's Romain Sicard are the latest riders to jump clear of the peloton, but their breakaway attempt is shortlived and they're pulled back in.

160km - Since the first rest day, the Vuelta a Espana has really been about three superhuman Spanish riders, with varied combinations of Rodriguez, Contador and Valverde finishing first, second and third on two occasions, 11th, 12th and 13th on one occasion and third, fourth and fifth on another. Our blogger, Blazin' Saddles, takes a look back at how things have panned out in a thrilling second phase of the Vuelta... Blazin' Saddles: Vuelta week two round-up

168km - Simon Geschke (Argos-Shimano) and Javier Aramendia (Caja-Rural) break clear but it's short-lived and they're back with the bunch. Aramendia was so aggressive at the start of this Vuelta but he's been quiet over the past week. In fact, his last attempt at breaking away - for a fifth time - was last Tuesday in the stage following the first rest day.

172km - We now have a group of 30 riding ahead of the peloton after yet another fast and frenetic start to a Vuelta stage. This race just keeps on getting better and better!

180km - Martin and Hansen are joined by five other riders but the group is minimal. It's going to be a fair fight today for the decisive break to stick: the stage really suits a breakaway and there are many teams without a win and riders with something to prove.

183km - Eight riders join Rasch but the break comes nothing, allowing a counter-attacking opportunity for Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) and Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).

187km - They're off! No withdrawals to report over the rest day, so a field of 181 riders has taken to the start today.

11:25 - It's very much a two horse race now, with Rodriguez leading Contador by 28 seconds in the overall classification, with another Spaniard - Alejandro Valverde - all but guaranteed a place on the podium, trailing the red jersey by 2:04. British hope Chris Froome is now 4:52 off the pace in fourth place. General classification

11:15 - Welcome to live coverage of stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana, a rolling 187km ride from Santander to Fuente De, where the stage will conclude with a gradual Cat.2 slope to the finish.