British cyclist Mark Cavendish has stormed to his second consecutive stage win in this year's Tour de France.
The sprint king managed to hold off nearest rival Thor Hushovd by two bike lengths to retain the green jersey at La Grand-Motte, making him the first British rider to wear it for more than a single day.
Fabian Cancellara, who keeps the yellow jersey at the end of the race, and Astana's Lance Armstrong finished in the top group of 27 riders, while Armstrong's teammate and Tour favourite Alberto Contador trailed at the end of the pack.
There was an early breakaway on the 196.5km stage just over two minutes from the start at Marseille - Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) and Maxime Bouet (FdJ) managed to get ahead of the peloton, with Ruben Perez Moreno of Euskatel and Koen de Kort of the Skil-Shimano team attempting to catch them.
By lunchtime the four riders were approximately 11 minutes clear of the peloton. The quartet maintained their lead, with Bouet and Dumoulin picking up points on the intermediate sprints and de Kort the first to receive King of the Mountains points.
However with 50km to go, the peloton narrowed the lead to four minutes on the final approach, which was further reduced to two minutes with 33km of the course left to ride.
It was at this point that Team Columbia made a startling breakaway from the peloton, catching the leading four with every member of the Columbia team part of the break.
With just 2km to go, Mark Cavendish attacked with a fierce sprint, allowing him to achieve the sixth Tour de France stage victory of his career.
Cavendish's total now stands at 70 points, ahead of Thor Hushovd in second position.
The overall standings now place Fabian Cancellara 33 seconds ahead of Tony Martin, winner of the white jersey, closely followed by Astana members Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador third and fourth respectively.
British Olympian Bradley Wiggins is in fifth place, exactly one minute behind leader Cancellara.
