Sir Bradley Wiggins moved to within one stage of victory at the Tour of Britain after safely completing stage seven in Guildford. The Brit entered the penultimate test with a 32-second lead to defend and, with the support of his Team Sky team-mates, now heads to London in the box seat to win his home tour for the first time.

The team received help on a lumpy Surrey parcours from a pair of motivated sprinters’ teams, each looking to set up a bunch kick on the uphill cobbled drag to the line. Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) claimed his second stage victory of the race, mirroring his success of 12 months earlier, having sprinted from a long way out. Stage one winner Elia Viviani (Cannondale) drew level with the Manx man in the final 100 metres but with his bike skipping on the cobbles the Italian was unable to maintain his momentum. Another stage winner in the race, Gerald Ciolek (MTN Qhubeka), rounded out the podium with third.

Wiggins finished high up in a stretched peloton with chief rival Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) placing eighth in the sprint, a split in the bunch seeing Wiggins timed at six seconds back, trimming his lead slightly to 26 seconds. Team Sky also maintained the rest of their presence in the top 10, with David López (+1:08) sitting fourth and Ian Stannard (+1:34) in seventh.

After the stage Sport Director Servais Knaven admitted it was nice to see the team able to take a break from the pace-setting as excitement builds ahead of London.

“It was good that other teams took it up today,” said the Dutchman. “That was what we expected as we knew this was a stage for the sprinters. That worked perfectly as the guys deserved an easier day. That’s not to say it was easy, but the last few days have certainly been tough,” he said.

“The start was tricky but the break went early. After that it wasn’t too hard to control. It was always left, right, up and down all day. There were so many spectators around which was great to see, but it all meant that everyone had to stay concentrated. We’re in a good position and the guys are all professionals. But we are excited to be heading to London with the yellow jersey!”

The penultimate stage weighed in at 155km and looked likely to end in a bunch sprint if the peloton played its cards right. With a tough opening 50km to be negotiated and no room for error or lapses in concentration, Team Sky returned to the front of the bus to monitor the situation as a good breakaway went clear. Kristian House (Rapha Condor JLT), Pete Williams (IG Sigma Sport), Christophe Laborie (Sojasun) and Lucas Euser (UnitedHealthcare) made up the quartet which was pegged at three-and-a-half minutes by the bunch.

In contrast to much of the race Team Sky were happy to receive help and cede responsibility for the pace-setting duties, with Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, Cannondale and representation from the Great Britain squad all eager to set the pace in a bid to set up a bunch sprint. Heading into the closing stages a battle for position ensued, Omega Pharma-Quick-Step leading the peloton into the final 10km, sweeping up the break in the process before Cavendish secured victory.