Sir Bradley Wiggins can add the Tour Of Britain to his list of achievements after winning the race overall on a day when Mark Cavendish took this third victory of the race in Westminster.
Wiggins went into the eighth stage which was a ten laps of a 8.88km circuit around central London, with a 26 second lead over Martin Elmiger.
There were massive crowds to see six riders in Jack Bauer (GRS), Shane Archbold (SKT), Andreas Schillinger (TNE) Pete Williams (IGS), Pardilla (MTN) and Angel Madrazo (MOV) - the points leader get away.
Pete Williams took the sprint points on the second lap ahead of Bauer and Madrazo to close in on the Movistar's points tally.
Their lead was 37 seconds with 50kms to go and the same when they started the second sprint on lap four. A bit of cat and mouse games, the gap down to 26 seconds as the riders passed Parliament and turned for the sprint finish line. Bauer took the three seconds and as Pete Williams and Madrazo battled with Williams putting his hand on the King Of The Mountains winner, who was only a point ahead in the Yodel Direct Sprint standings.
Archbold and Schillinger shot off up front as Bauer, Williams, Madrazo and Pardilla were mopped up by the peloton.
Shane Archibold stayed away until 22.4kms but he too was caught before the third sprint started. With Angel Madrazo nowhere to be seen, Simon Yates took the sprint ahead of Alex Dowsett of Movistar and crucially Pete Williams who snatched third place from Thwaites by inches to win the Yodel Direct Sprint competition. Well, that was the way it was until the Commisaurs ruled differently and awarded the overall Sprint competition win to Madrazo.
Dowsett, the British Time Trial champion, went solo with fifteen kilometres to go and quickly built a twelve second lead before being caught a kilometre before the final lap.
Team Sky were on the front for the start of the last lap. Omega Pharma Quick Step, UK Youth, Team Raleigh, Cannondale, Node 4 and Bardiani all came up to the fore trying to get the win.
The pace ramped right up with three kilometres of what has been an excellent race to go.
Omega Pharma were blocked but got back onto the front. Petacchi was in the lead and led out Mark Cavendish to win his third stage victory in 1.47.22, ahead of Bennett, Viviani, Pelucchi and Opie.
Bradley Wiggins finished 23rd and won the race overall ahead of Elmiger and Simon Yates.
Shane Archibold was the day's most combative rider and won a wheel of cheese.
Kristian House won the overall combativity award.
The U23 winner went to Simon Yates of the Great Britain team.
Yodel Direct Sprints Competition went to Angel Madrazo of Movistar.
Skoda King Of The Mountains went to Angel Madrazo.of Movistar
Chain Reactions Points Winner went to Martin Elmiger of Iam Cycling
Stage Winner Cavendish, who will ride in the World Championships next week, said to Eurosport; "Really nice to win in front of the crowds which was incredible. To see that amount of people out for the tenth anniversary of the Tour Of Britain was brilliant.
"Allesandro Petacchi has been perfect all week and I am super proud to have him as a team-mate and win in my British Champions jersey.
Wiggins described his victory as a relied and said "It was relief that the job was done. It was a hectic finish so it was a relief and until the job is done it is never really over. "This was one of my goals that i wanted to win. It is down to my wife more than anyone that I am here today. "I will get Wednesday out of the way and decide what I am going to do from there."