Cadel Evans sealed victory in the 2011 Tour de France after a trouble-free final stage to Paris that saw Mark Cavendish take his third consecutive sprint win on the Champs-Élysées.

In the finishing sprint, Cavendish enjoyed a fine lead-out from his HTC-Highroad squad across the Place de la Concorde.

With just one little climb and a strong wind that blew the bunch from Limoux to Montpellier the HTC Express again delivered their captain to the line where he duly performed his winning dash to the line ahead of Tyler Farrar, Alessandro Petacchi and Daniel Oss. Other sprinters didn’t stand a chance and the winner in Carmaux wasn’t a factor today: André Greipel got squeezed out of contention after missing the wheel of his lead-out man, and Philippe Gilbert – while he tried to steal an advantage after capturing the escapees of the day only three kilometers from the line – couldn’t do better than 28th place, one ahead of Cadel Evans.

Mark Cavendish has claimed the 18th Tour de France stage win of his career and seized the points classification leader’s green jersey. Second on the rainy 11th stage was yeserday’s winner Andre Greipel of Germany.

Cavendish made the most of the last stage designed for sprinters before the race reaches the Pyrenees to claim his 18th stage win at the Tour, his third in this year’s race. He won in 3 hours, 46 minutes, 7 seconds.

Mark Cavendish of HTC-Highroad won his second stage in the Tour de France today in the town of Châteauroux, where he celebrated his first ever stage win. Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-ISD finished second, André Gripel of Lotto was third.

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

Mark Cavendish, arguably the worlds top sprinter had to pick his way through traffic to finish in the Tour Down Under Thursday, leaving officials highly embarrassed at the third stage of the event.

Cavendish had a tough day at the office on Wednesday suffering cuts and abrasions to his face and body in a from a crash, and was left trailing late in Thursday’s finale as the peloton tackled a hilly 21 kilometer circuit three times.

It was an Australian clean sweep at the 2011 Cancer Council Classic with HTC-Highroad teammates Matt Goss and Mark Renshaw taking 1st and 2nd respectively. Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) took 3rd.

The 51km race was shaped by a breakaway from Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Luke Durbridge (Uni-SA) and Martin Mortensen (Leopard Trek). But they were swept up with five laps to go.

Australian Mark Renshaw has extended his contract with HTC-Columbia and will continue to ride with them for 2011 and 2012. Renshaw, a world class sprinter, has become known as the best lead out guy in the peloton over the past two years, and had been pivotal in a number of Mark Cavendish’s wins.