Tour of Britain Stage 7: Mark Cavendish wins again in Guildford, Bradley Wiggins set to win overall

Mark Cavendish, winner of a Tour of Britain stage in Guildford 12 months ago in the rainbow jersey of world champion, this afternoon repeated the feat in the red, white and blue colours of national champion, getting a storming leadout from Omega Pharma-Quick Step team mate Alessandro Petacchi ahead of the final 200 metre climb to the line, and holding off Cannondale's Elia Viviani to win.

Last year, Cavendish rode the race with Team Sky; his former team mate Sir Bradley Wiggins came home safely in the bunch today, and barring mishap will seal his overall victory in the final stage's circuit race in Central London tomorrow.

With 10km left, George Atkins of the Great Britain under-23 team jumped off the front of the main group but was quickly brought back.

By now, the day’s break, comprising four riders - Peter Williams of Team IG Sigma Sport, UnitedHealthcare’s Lucas Euser, Sojasun’s Christophe Laborie and Kristian House of Rapha Condor JLT - had just 10 seconds’ advantage on the chasing group. They would be caught with 6km left.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step had taken on much of the pace-setting duties throughout the 150.4km stage from Epsom to Guildford, which followed a winding course through the Surrey countryside, as they looked to set up Cavendish for the win, and never let the escapees' advantage drift much beyond 3 minutes.

Coming under the flamme rouge, Petacchi led what was now a very strung out peloton, Cavendish sitting on his wheel, and as the Italian peeled off, his work done, the British champion was left on his own ahead of that short but punchy final climb perhaps a little earlier than he would have liked.

Heading up the cobbles of Guildford High Street, two men who had spent spells in the IG gold jersey of race leader after themselves winning stages - Viviani, and Gerald Ciolek of MTN-Qhubeka, who would finish third - were closing fast, but once again it was Cavendish who prevailed, taking his second stage of this year's race, and ninth career Tour of Britain stage win.

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