Stage 11 was 184.5km long and from Sisteron to Bourg Les Valence. There were 179 riders competing in this stage which had a sprinters finish after Omega Pharma Lotto's Charles Weglius (pictured below) withdrew due to a virus along with Robbie Hunter who broke a bone in his elbow yesterday.
On a glorious day, all the early breaks were kept in check by the teams trying to get their sprinters into a prime spot.
With 10kms to go, Saxobank, HTC Colombia and Astana were doing all the work. Slyvain Chavanel and Yaroslav Popovych tried to break but were quickly pulled back by the peleton.
Carvelo Test Team's Jeremy Hunt was working hard at the front with less than 5km to go with Steve Cummings and Geraint Thomas also right up in the mix.
Lampre led with 1km to go. There was a clash of heads with Australian Mark Renshaw and New Zealdner Julian Dean but Mark Cavendish (pictured below) made the most of the gap and surged to the line to record his 13th TDF victory in three years.
"I'm really pleased to have won again," Cavendish, already the victor in stages five and six, said to the HTC Colombia Press Office afterwards. "The team did a great job and we worked hard for this throughout the stage."
Alesandro Petacchi was second with Tylar Farrar (pictured below) third.
Andy Schleck pocketed another 8,000 euros and still leads the race for the yellow jersey by 41 seconds.
Renshaw was later disqualified from the race and told his team's press office: "I'm extremely disappointed and also surprised at this decision. I never imagined I would be removed from any race especially the Tour de France. I pride myself on being a very fair, safe and a straight up sprinter and never in my career have I received a fine or even a warning."
"Julian came hard in on my position with his elbows. I needed to use my head to retain balance or there would have been a crash. If had used my elbows when Julian brought his elbow on top of mine we would also have crashed. The object was to hold my line and stay upright.
"I hadn't started the sprint yet. We were still at 375m to go. After that Cavendish had to start his sprint early and I was also ready to finish off the sprint as I still had a lot left in my legs. It would have been good to try to take some more points. I only saw open space on my left. I had no idea Tyler Farrar was there. By no means would I ever put any of my fellow riders in danger."
Tomorrow's 12th stage is 210.5km long and is from Bourg de Peage to Mende. You can see it live on British Eurosport and ITV4.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM