This was the longest day in the saddle for the riders in this 227.5km stage from Montargis to Gueugnon.
Omega Pharma Lotto's Sebastian Lang was the man in a three man break away picking up the points. The German won the first sprint on a baking hot day after 47km at Saint Fargeau and then took the second after 163km at Moulins Engilbert.
Lang plus Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskatel) and Mathieu Perget (Caisse D'Epargne), who was the Brandt Most Aggressive rider of the day, were at one time seven minutes clear but the pelelton which included Mark Cavendish, after he had some work done on his Scott bike, and Bradley Wiggins towards the front, chased them down and with 43km to go , the gap was less than two minutes.
The stage was again shaping up to be one for the sprinters as it headed into the last 30km which was being described as very fast.
Lang missed out on the final road sprint with 24km to go as his group of three had been joined by Dimitri Champion and the gap was down to 34 seconds.
With 20km to go, the gap was down to nineteen seconds. The peleton were now in full charge and 10kms later, the break was ended as the peleton took over with Radio Shack, Liquigas, Garmin, BMC and Astana all prominent.
Each team was looking to get their sprinter into the battle for the line. Mark Cavendish stayed in Mark Renshaw's draft as Geraint Thomas and Ed Boasson-Hagen moved up.
Garmin had the lead at the last corner with Tyler Farrar and Julian Dean but Mark Renshaw got in a great position to set up Mark Cavendish to record the 36th win by a British rider in the Tour De France and the Manx Missle's 12th TDF stage victory.
Tyler Farrar (pictured below) was second , Petacchi was third with Robbie McEwen fourth.
Cavendish said to Eurosport: "It was a really hard day, it was so great that my guys kept it together and I had the perfect lead out and used the back trains to deliver me perfectly with 175 metres to go.
"We will just keep plugging away and see what we can do. "
Speaking to the HTC Colombia Press Office, Cavendish said: "Yesterday was really emotional, and today I'm really happy, too. As ever the boys did a great job working hard all the way through the finish and I can't thank them enough for tha. "HTC-Columbia is not a team of eight guys and me. I'm just the last rider in a nine-man unit."
"Michael Rogers did some really good work in the final kilometres and then I went with Mark Renshaw at the end, following him from one team's train to another. Finally all I had to do was finish off my team's good work, giving it everything with 200 metres to go."
Fabian Cancellera keeps his yellow jersey with Geraint Thomas second, some 20 seconds back.
The rest of the British and Irish placings are Nicholas Roche 11th, Bradley Wiggins is in 14th place, David Millar 15th, Steve Cummngs 66th, Mark Cavendish 107th, Jeremy Hunt 130th, Daniel Lloyd 146th, Charles Weglius 171st.
The stage finished in bizarre scenes. There was a fight between Quick Step's Spaniard Carlos Barredo and Caisse d'Epargne's Portuguese rider Rui Costa. Videos of the incident and reported by Nos of the Netherlands and Belgium's Sporza showed Barredo raising his wheel to Costa and a fist fight breaking out before it was broken up. Both riders were fined 300 euros.
Robbie McEwen ended up in hospital after he crossed the line and was involved in a collision with a member of the TDF race organisation. Writing on his Twitter page, McEwen said: "Got taken out at 60kph by a podium chaperone 75m after the finish. "He literally jumped in front of me and ran into me. Nothing broken. "My back is so sore. £I want him identified and expelled. Just too ridiculous for words what he did. I hope I can ride tomorrow."
Stage seven is from Tornus to Station Des Rouses and is 165.5km long.
You can see it on British Eurosport and ITV4.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM
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In the Tour Of Austria, HTC Colombia rider André Greipel won the sixth stage in Laxenburg. It was his 14th win of the season.
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