Cavendish wins Tour’s seventh stage

British sprint king Mark Cavendish took his victory tally on the Tour de France to 17 yesterday when he powered to victory in the seventh stage ahead of Italian veteran Alessandro Petacchi.

Norway’s Thor Hushovd retained the leader’s yellow jersey after the 218km ride over mainly flat terrain from Le Mans to Chateauroux.

The Garmin-Cervelo rider will go into the first of two consecutive days in the hilly Massif Central region with a one second lead on Australian Cadel Evans.

After a perfect lead-out in the final kilometres by his HTC-Highroad sprint train, Cavendish came out from behind the wheel of lead-out man Mark Renshaw to beat Petacchi with ease at the finish. Germany’s Andre Greipel was third for Omega-Pharma.

While one Britain was celebrating, however, another was crying.

Around 43km from the finish, yellow jersey contender Bradley Wiggins was forced out of the race after being caught up in a crash and fracturing his collarbone.