Mark Cavendish claimed his 24th Tour de France stage victory on the seafront in Marseille yesterday.

His smug look took up most of the page; was he smiling thinking this was too easy?

A sensational sprint finish saw Mark Cavendish claim the 22nd Tour de France stage success of his career in Brive-la-Gaillarde today.

Pierrick Fedrigo claimed France's fourth win of the Tour de France on stage 15 to Pau today as the peloton opted for a day of respite.

Andre Greipel claimed a third victory of the Tour de France with a stage 13 success to Le Cap d'Agde.

A counter attack from yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky colleague Chris Froome saw them move into first and second place overall after stage 11 of the Tour de France as the race entered the high Alps.

Defending champion Cadel Evans and rival Bradley Wiggins successfully negotiated a crash-strewn first week of the Tour de France as some of their rivals for the Paris podium saw their hopes come to an end on stage six to Metz.

Bradley Wiggins was today set to stay out of trouble on the sixth stage of the Tour de France as Mark Cavendish again went in search of a 22nd Tour stage win of his career.

Dan Martin’s Garmin-Sharp team have endured more than most in the opening week of the Tour de France but matters worsened yesterday when their team manager Jonathan Vaughters was taken to task before the stage start in Rouen about reports in a Dutch newspaper that some of his riders had received six-month bans after confessing to doping.

Irish duo Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) survived another day of carnage at the Tour de France yesterday but world champion Mark Cavendish wasn’t so lucky as he crashed heavily inside the final three kilometres on the run-in to the finish in Rouen.

Mark Cavendish today won a first Tour de France stage as world champion and a 21st of his career.