Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) took an important home win in today's fourth stage of the Tour of Britain when he beat stage 1 winner Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and Steele Von Hoff (Garmin) in a hugely confusing sprint. A big 11-rider group was caught with less than 1km to go and Cavendish benefited from the situation while Bradley Wiggins (Sky) finished safely in the bunch to defend his overall lead.

Mark Cavendish was left disappointed when he missed out on the win on stage 1 in the Tour of Britain but today he made amends for the loss. Having been perfectly positioned by new teammate Alessandro Petacchi, he powered clear to take a convincing win in the sprint on a day where a bunch kick didn't seem to be in store.

A big 11-rider group had gone clear early in the stage and as most of the sprint teams - including Cavendish's Omega Pharma-Quick Step - had a rider in the move, there was no big interest in chasing them down. With no sprinter in their ranks, the Sky team of overall leader Bradley Wiggins was content with keeping things under control throughout the day.

An attack from Daniel Martin (Garmin) and a counterattack from Jack Bauer (Garmin) on the final climb with 10km to go forced Sky to kick into action. When the moves were neutralized, NetApp-Endura sensed that they had a shot at the stage win and started to chase hard to reel in the escape.

Heinrich Haussler (IAM) did his best to keep the break alive but had no success as he and his companions were all overtaken inside the final kilometre. Bardiani hit the front to set up Sacha Modolo for the win but the Italian never played any role in the ensuing sprint.

Matteo Pelucchi (IAM) opened a long sprint but Cavendish had been perfectly positioned by Petacchi and when he produced his famous kick, no one was able to beat him. Viviani did a good sprint to take 2nd but the winner was never in doubt.

Wiggins responded perfectly to the late attacks and so finished safely in the bunch to defend his 37-second lead over teammate Ian Stannard. He takes that lead into tomorrow's 5th stage which is the well-known one into Caerphilly. Two times up the brutal Carephilly Mountain inside the final 15km will produce an exciting race and there is no doubt that Martin and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) will continue their aggressive showing in their preferred terrain.

Starting at 15.00 you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

More to come

Result:

1. Mark Cavendish 4.45.42

2. Elia Viviani

3. Steele Von Hoff

4. Matteo Pelucchi

5. Jose Joaquin Rojas

6. Owain Doull

7. Evaldas Siskevicius

8. Scott Thwaites

9. Chris Opie

10. Sam Bennett

General classification:

1. Bradley Wiggins 16.11.36

2. Ian Stannard +0.37

3. Martin Elmiger +0.47

4. Jack Bauer +0.55

5. Alex Dowsett +0.57

6. David Lopez +1.17

7. Michal Golas +1.18

8. Sergio Pardilla +1.18

9. Gerald Ciolek +1.21

10. Alexander Wetterhall +1.21