Britain's Mark Cavendish won the second stage of the Tour de France after a blistering finish.

The 24-year-old edged out Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Slipstream and Agritubel's Romain Feillu in the closing stages for his fifth career win in the marquee event.

It boosts Cavendish's hopes of reaching Paris on July 26th in the green jersey for the points classification champion.

And it was his 42nd professional victory, beating the previous best by a British rider held by Chris Boardman.

Cavendish said he was thrilled with his finish to the race.

"I was in good form, you could see the team were motivated for the sprint, all nine of us were riding out in the front there at the end," he said.

"We were the only team for a while sprinting with Saxo-Bank and then Cervelo came in with one guy.

"When we put two guys in, when we took control we showed we meant business and I'm happy to finish it with a win."

Swiss Fabian Cancellara, who won Saturday's time-trial opener, retained the yellow jersey for his Saxo-Bank team.

Finland's Jussi Veikkanen of Francaise Des Jeux took maximum points on three of the four climbs to claim the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey.

But it was Cavendish who stole the show after breaking away in the final 400 metres for his 51st victory of the season for the Columbia-HTC team.
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