The break could soon swell though. There is a chasing pack of nine riders who are hovering around 40 seconds behind on the road with about 91km to go.

They are: Romain Bardet, Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Koen Bouwman, Antwan Toelhoek (LottoNL-Jumbo), Carlos Verona, Christopher Juul-Jensen (Orica-Scott) and Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac).

Bardet is up there looking for stage glory after a disappointing challenge for the overall that was pretty much over by the end of the first week.

So here are the 19 riders who went up the road earlier on:

Bob Jungels, Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors), Nicolas Roche (BMC), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Julien Duval (AG2R La Mondiale), Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Floris De Tier, Juanjo Lobato (LottoNL-Jumbo), Rui Costa, Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirates), Laurens de Vreese (Astana), Edward Theuns, Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo), Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-Merida), Dani Navarro, Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis), David Arroyo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Juan Felipe Osorio (Manzana-Postobon).

Some elite break specialists and experienced winners in there. The irrepressible Thomas de Gendt will be desperate for a stage win, having seemingly spent his entire season in breakaways.

Here's what the riders are tackling today...no massive climbs but this late into a Grand Tour, every rise is far from welcome on a 149.7km route.

A 19-man breakaway (their names to follow soon) are all already up and over the first category climb of Alto de la Colladonna.

A chasing group on the road are just under a minute behind them.

The peloton are a long way back down the road - happy to let the break go clear and contest the stage win. But it's far from a day off for the general classification riders, who will be wary of any late moves with that last category three climb so close to the finish in Gijon.

Image source, Vuelta

Welcome to live coverage of stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espana.

Britain's Chris Froome is in the leader's red jersey and looks on course to become only the third rider to win both the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in the same year.

However, there's a slightly tricky day with a few climbs, including one near the finish today, before an immensely tough challenge on the fearsome Angliru tomorrow.

Survive these two days and Froome will be the Vuelta champion, with Sunday's stage a processional one into Madrid.

Plenty of other races within the race to look out for too. Here we go...