André Greipel won the seventh stage in the Tour of Britain. He defeated Elia Viviani after a very close sprint.

Three escapees went clear after a very fast first hour: Dowsett, Briggs and Cullaigh. Before halfway they got a maximum of nine minutes on the bunch, where Lotto Soudal controlled the race. The gap of the escapees went down and at ten kilometers from the finish they were caught. Sky, IAM and Lotto Soudal were the dominant teams during the preparation of the sprint, but André Greipel was the fastest of the whole bunch, his sixteenth victory of the season, the thirty-fifth for Lotto Soudal.

“It was a close victory, but the photo finish was clear I think. We took control of the race from the beginning, no other team wanted to help us. When the gap was nine minutes, one rider of IAM also started to pull. Frederik Frison and Sean De Bie kept the peace high so nobody could attack,” André Greipel said.

“Pim [Ligthart], Sibi [Marcel Sieberg], Jens [Debusschere] and I did the preparation and the sprint. I think we deserved the victory, Sky have already won three stages.

"The first stages we wanted to help Jens to a victory, but we had some bad luck. Because the teams started with six riders and some lost already two or three, it’s difficult to control, also because everybody is tired after a hard week.

"Tomorrow we try again, but not without help from other teams. They predict rain, we’ll see if Jens or I will sprint.”