British sprint king Mark Cavendish made amends for defeat by German rival Andre Greipel by notching up his 18th career victory in the Tour de France in the race’s 11th stage yesterday.

Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, of Europcar, retained the race leader’s yellow jersey after the 167.5km stage from Blaye-les-Mines to Lavaur, which ended in a select bunch sprint after an early breakaway was caught 4km from the finish.

Voeckler finished the stage with all the yellow jersey favourites to retain his lead of 1min 49sec on Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez, of Rabobank.

It is Cavendish’s third win of this year’s race, after victories on stage five and stage seven.

A day after being beaten to the finish of stage 10 by Greipel, Caven-dish beat the Omega-Pharma sprin-ter by over a bike’s length in a rain-hit finish.

In doing so, the 26-year-old from the Isle of Man took possession of the points competition’s green jersey from Philippe Gilbert.

Today’s 12th stage is the first of three in a row in the Pyrenees and is expected to stage the first skirmishes in the yellow jersey battle between Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans.

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