The penultimate road stage of this year's Tour De France was from Salies De Bearn to Bordeaux and was 198km long.
Having coming out of the mountains, it was a flat stage and one took in by film stars Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise as the tour made its ways through the vinyards of Bordeaux which was welcoming Le Tour for the 80th time to the finish.
Four riders including Jerome Pineau, Matti Breschel, Daniel Oss and Benoit Vaugrenard were able to get away.
The gap closed down to less than a minute with 15km to go, Daniel Oss went for broke. However, with the peleton, lead by HTC Colombia and Lampre, speeding like an TGV train, the 23 year old Liquigas rider was going to do well to stay clear.
With 6km to go, Oss could see the peleton, which had Carvelo Test Team's Brits Daniel Lloyd (pictured below) and Jeremy Hunt behind him along with Bradley Wiggins driving on.
Oss was soon caught and with two kilometres to go, it was anyone's race.
In fornt of massive crowds in Bordeaux, Petacchi, Dean and Mark Cavendish battled for the line and it was Cavendish (pictured below) who used to his speed to record his fourth victory in this tour.
Julian Dean was second with Alessandro Petacchi, now the green jersey leader third.
Alberto Contador stays in yellow eight seconds clear of Andy Schleck.
"I am happy and that was really incredible," said Cavendish to ITV's Ned Boulding after the race. "Bernie (Eisel) kept me there at the finish and I jumped from train to train. "I am suffering from a touch of bronchitus and didn't even know if I was going to start this morning. But there are only 150kms to go and I am looking forward to a rest."
Speaking to his team's press office, Cavendish said: "When Petacchi accelerated with 275 metres to go, he surprised me. "But I got past him okay and I was pretty happy about that. It was easier than I expected. I didn't know how big the gap was between me and the next guy was, though, because all I see is the finish line. In any case, it doesn't matter how much or how little you win by, it's winning that matters."
Cavendish explained that he looked back at the peloton as he reached the line in order to keep his sprint effort to a minimum. "I wanted to conserve as much energy as possible. Tomorrow [the Tour's last time trial] will be hard; 50 kilometres by myself."
Asked about his chances in the green jersey competition, in which he is currently third, Cavendish said that at this point his aim is to take a final stage victory in Paris for a second year in the row. "I've got to try to win on the Champs-Elysées, whatever the situation is, and that's all I can do."
Tomorrow's stage is an individual time trial from Bordeaux to Paulillac and is 52km long. You can see the stage live on British Eurosport and ITV4.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM