Marcel Kittel confirmed his status as the fastest rider in the world when he beat Mark Cavendish in an exciting battle in London. The German was delighted with the outcome after a race that didn't leave him many opportunities.

Marcel Kittel has sprinted to his second victory of the Tour of Britain on the final stage of the race in London.

Tom Veelers got a deserved birthday present after dropping Kittel off in the final few hundred metres for him to launch his final effort to the line. Having won the opening stage, Kittel did not disappoint once again in front of a welcoming crowd in the centre of the British capital.

The final stage was a perfect sprint opportunity around ten laps of the flat 8.8km circuit in central London and the team went into the stage motivated and with a concise plan of what to do.

After two laps full gas the race finally settled into a rhythm behind five breakaway riders. These five became four when a touch of wheels saw a rider come down before returning to the peloton where Tom Stamsnijder was pulling hard on the front to monitor the gap to those out front.

The gap reached a maximum of 40 seconds but as the laps ticked by, their advantage also started to fall and coming into the last lap the remaining riders out front only had a handful of seconds left over the chasing bunch.

Into the final lap the race was all back together and the sprint formations started to appear at the front of the race. Albert Timmer was the first to pull the team up to the front with Bert De Backer, Tom Veelers and Kittel in his wheel. He brought them up near the front on the right hand side as planned before De Backer pulled through to bring them to the front.

Veelers then took his turn into the first of two final corners before the finish straight where he dropped Kittel off into the front wheel from which point he was able to pull out and hold his sprint all the way to the finish to edge past Cavendish and take the win. It was close on the line but on looking back at the photos it was definitely a win for Kittel, and a great reward for a well executed plan.

After the stage coach Marc Reef said: “We came here for the sprint opportunities and also for the breakaways and with today’s win that completes a successful week with two wins and a second for Albert. We knew that it would be hard with three guys who were coming back from sickness or injury so for these guys it was also a case of building up again but in the end we won both sprint stages with great teamwork and Marcel finishing it off.

“Albert coming second was really close and that was too bad. But if you look to the whole week it was a hard race, and it will prepare the guys well for the coming weeks.”

Kittel added: “The lead-out was great today. To start and finish the race with a win is great. It has been a good week, hard racing but as a team we have raced well and it should set us up well for the races to come still at the end of the season.

“It worked out really well for us at the end today. We waited late to move up to the front and then Tom took me round the top corner before dropping me off in a perfect position. It was a hard sprint but I had enough to come back at the end and hold on. It’s a nice way to end the week here.”