Mark Cavendish secures green in style

Cavendish wins again ©Graham Watson

It was his third straight victory on the Champs Elysees.

The green jersey was the one competition which was still to be decided at the start of today's final stage of the 2011 Tour de France.

Cavendish started the day with 15 more points than Movistar's Jose Joaquin Rojas, but after gaining points in the interim sprint and maximum points on the Champs Elysees, he ended the Tour with a 62 point lead.

The Manxman took his 5th sprint win of the 2011 Tour at the end of a 95km stage from Creteil to Paris, blasting ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) and Andre Greipel (Omega Pharma Lotto).

The first British rider ever to win the points jersey, Cavendish said afterwards there could not have been a better way to round off his battle for green than with the 20th stage win of his career in the Tour de France.

"I finally got it, but it didn't come easy," Cavendish said, "I really had to fight for it all the way to the last finish line and I'm very tired, but it was worth all that effort."

"I had eight fantastic teammates around me all the way, they kept working with me, I was close to getting it for the last two years and now it's finally here."

"I'm so happy, it's incredible. It's a great way to finish the Tour and a super, super emotional day."

How the stage panned out

As expected, the first part of the stage was a parade for Tour leader Cadel Evans who took the opportunity to pose for photos.  As well as his BMC teammates and the Schlecks, Evans posed with Liquigas team leader Ivan Basso - the two shared the same Italian coach, Aldo Sassi, who died late last year.

Once the peloton hit the Champs Elysees circuit, the racing began. On the second of eight laps, Team Sky's sprinter Ben Swift escaped along with Sergio Paulinho (RadioShack),  Kristjan Koren (Liquigas), Christophe Riblon (AG2R), Lars Bak (HTC Highroad) and Jeremy Roy (FDJ) - who was later named the Most Combative Rider of the Tour.

The break group was kept to a maximum 43sec lead by the peloton led by Garmin Cervelo, Omega Pharma Lotto team and HTC Highroad. 

On the final lap it was HTC versus HTC as the Tour's top leadout train ended up chasing down their own rider, the last of the escapees to be reeled in.

There were several teams trying to take charge of the leadout, Lampre, Omega Pharma-Lotto and Vacansoleil, all dabbled at setting up the sprint but they were swamped by the HTC Express in the final kilometre.

Then it was the traditional line-up for the sprint: Matt Goss then Mark Renshaw then Cavendish and... voila! Victory number 20 was achieved. 

Behind Cavendish was another celebration when Cadel Evans (BMC) crossed the line as the champion of the 2011 Tour de France.

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