Cavendish sprints to victory - Cycling - NBCSports.com Cavendish sprints to victory Team Sky takes Stage 18 as Mark Cavendish wins day and Bradley Wiggins inches closer to an overall victory BRIVVE-LA-GAILLARDE, France - Bradley Wiggins moved closer to a Tour de France victory, keeping the yellow jersey on a day teammate and British countryman Mark Cavendish won the 18th stage. Wiggins and Cavendish exchanged a long hug after the finish Friday. Cavendish, largely overshadowed by his Sky teammate, won a stage for the second time on this Tour. He has 22 stage victories for his career - the same number as seven-time champion Lance Armstrong. The mostly flat ride along four small hills covered 138 miles from Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde, a transitional stage before Saturday's time trial. The three-week race ends Sunday in Paris. Wiggins, Cavendish and the Sky team made it look easy with an almost textbook sprint setup. With less than a mile to go, Wiggins took the head of the pack and chased down six breakaway riders, then peeled away. The Sky train motored ahead and Cavendish - showing he's perhaps the world's most explosive rider - whirred around the remaining escapees in the last several hundred yards and won by a couple of bike lengths. Luis Leon Sanchez, seeing Cavendish speed by, appeared to sigh with resignation. Cavendish was followed by runner-up Matt Goss of Australia and Peter Sagan of Slovakia in third place.