A pair of riders – An Post–Sean Kelly's Pieter Ghyllebert and Sigma Sport–Specialized's Russell Hampton – made the early breakaway from the field, locking out the top two placings at each of the three intermediate sprint points and the three categorised climbs during the stage.

[6] The breakaway, which had an advantage of six minutes over the field at one point during the stage, was caught with around 10 km (6.2 mi) remaining, which would ultimately set up a sprint finish in Dumfries.

UnitedHealthcare's Boy Van Poppel, An Post–Sean Kelly's Andrew Fenn, and the mountains classification leader Russell Hampton of Sigma Sport–Specialized formed the day's breakaway, and they accelerated away from the field to a maximum advantage of over three minutes.

[14] Dowsett was caught within the final 2 km (1.2 mi) of the stage, which allowed several teams to launch mini-attacks on their rivals, in an attempt to break them.

Rapha Condor–Sharp's Kristian House, Endura Racing's Jack Bauer, and the sprints classification leader Pieter Ghyllebert of An Post–Sean Kelly formed the breakaway, and they accelerated away from the field to a maximum advantage of almost six minutes.

[18] The world road race champion, Thor Hushovd, was set up for the sprint by Garmin–Cervélo team-mate Julian Dean, and proceeded to take the stage victory.

Lars Boom, the race leader, finished behind Hushovd, and ahead of Cesare Benedetti, Ian Bibby and Boy Van Poppel.

The field brought back the breakaway quickly, although there was a counter-attack from the break, with Damien Gaudin of Team Europcar going off the front with 25 km (15.5 mi) remaining.

Cavendish led the rest of the field over the line, ahead of Robert Förster, Geraint Thomas and Andrew Fenn.

[28] The first of the final day's pair of stages was a short circuit through London, around Whitehall and the Thames Embankment, measuring 8.8 km (5.5 mi).

House attacked off McLaughlin on the final lap, but was eventually swallowed up by the main field prior to the bunch sprint at the finish.

Robert Förster of UnitedHealthcare led the sprint out ahead of Mark Renshaw and Geraint Thomas, but it was Mark Cavendish, who turned into the final straight in fifth position, who took the stage victory ahead of Renshaw – HTC–Highroad's third one-two finish of the Tour – and allowed Cavendish to head to the UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark on a high.

Lars Boom finished in the main field to seal the race victory, and he became the first Dutch rider to win the Tour of Britain.