• Tour of Britain

Cavendish wins stage seven in sprint finish

Residents of Surrey lined the roads for stage seven of the Tour of Britain © Getty Images

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Mark Cavendish came out on top in a thrilling sprint finish to win stage seven of the Tour of Britain in Guildford with Sir Bradley Wiggins edging closer to overall victory.

Much of Saturday's penultimate stage was led by a breakaway group, however the peloton caught up with six kilometres of the 155km stage from Epsom to Guildford to go.

Ahead of the final 200 metre climb to the finish line, Cavendish, who won the Guildford stage 12 months ago, had a lead-out from Omega Pharma-Quick Step team mate Alessandro Petacchi and managed to hold off Cannondale's Elia Viviani.

Wiggins finished safely in the bunch to ensure that, barring disaster, he will complete his win in the general classification in London on Sunday, with a 26-second lead over Switzerland's Martin Elmiger of IAM Cycling heading into the final stage.

It was Cavendish's second stage victory at this year's Tour of Britain after Wednesday's win in Llanberis, and his ninth overall in his home race.

"I just mistimed it a little bit," said Cavendish of his early move ahead of the uphill finish.

"I was maybe over-confident. I remembered last year kicking out on the cobbles and I thought I'd do the same, but maybe I didn't get it right.

"I saw (Viviani) coming and just moved across to put him on the rough part of the road. The second kick really takes so much out of me, so we'll have to see about tomorrow."

Results:
Mark Cavendish (GBr) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 3:46:57
Elia Viviani (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
Gerald Ciolek (Ger) MTN-Qhubeka
Blaz Jarc (Slo) Team NetApp-Endura
Jacob Rathe (USA) Garmin-Sharp
Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) IAM Cycling
Chris Opie (GBr) Team UK Youth
Martin Elmiger (Swi) IAM Cycling
Alessandro Bazzana (Ita) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
Sam Bennett (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction

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