Vuelta a España - Cavendish storms to Vuelta stage victory

The main bunch came together with three kilometres remaining.

Cavendish launched himself off the wheel of team-mate Matt Goss first but found Saxo Bank's JJ Haedo firmly on his wheel.

In the final metres, despite a desperate effort from Haedo, the Manx Missile pulled away to claim the win on the line.

Manuel Cardoso finished an excellent third with Garmin's Tyler Farrar trailing in fourth place.

The win for the HTC Colombia rider all but confirms he will win the Vuelta points jersey this year.

A group of eight riders leapt away from the main peloton with only two kilometres of 148 completed.

The group, including Lampre's Daniele Pietropolli, stayed away for the majority of the stage and managed to stay out of trouble when the rain arrived.

Juan Estrada, Jose Toribio, Alexandre Pichot, Pablo Urtasun, Jose Benitez, Olivier Kaisen, Dominik Roels and Pietropolli were never able to create a lead that would have kept them clear to the finish.

And the peloton reeled them in with less than five kilometres to go to leave the sprinters poised to battle it out for honours.

A moment of discomfort happened during the stage's feeding station after 63 kilometres: FDJ's Pierre Cazaux fell from his bike as he collected his food bag.

Thankfully, the damage was not too great and the French rider was able to rejoin with a patched up right knee.

Vincenzo Nibali retained the leader's red jersey with the top 10 standings remaining the same.

The Vuelta finishes on September 19 in Madrid.

Source: eurosport.co.uk