Italian Alessandro Petacchi won a mass sprint finish to take the seventh stage of the Vuelta de Espana cycle race on Friday.

Petacchi, who won the points prize for the most consistent sprinter in this year's Tour de France, finished ahead of Mark Cavendish and Juan Jose Haedo in the town of Orihuela, which is close to the city of Alicante.

The stage was relatively flat with only a third category climb to try and shake up the peloton and the sprinters teams were always going to be working hard to close gaps and produce a mass sprint.

Cavendish had shown he is a faster sprinter than Petacchi in the final stage of the Tour de France, but this time the Italian had the edge over the Englishman who has finished second in two stages and third in another in this year's Vuelta.

However, the day's racing took place under a cloud following the news that Txema Gonzalez, a masseur with Team Sky died of complications after contracting a virus.

The 38-year-old had been taken to hospital in Seville on Sunday after the first stage of the race.

Meanwhile three members of the Sky racing team, Ben Swift, Juan Antonio Flecha and John Lee Augustyn, have been forced out of the race after suffering symptoms of the same virus, although they are not thought to be in danger.

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