• Tour de France, Stage 20

Cav wins stage but not green jersey, Contador champion

Mark Cavendish raced to a fifth stage win of the 2010 Tour © Getty Images

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Mark Cavendish produced a devastating late sprint to seal a fifth stage win of this year's Tour de France - but his efforts were not enough to stop him finishing as runner up to Alessandro Petacchi in the battle for the green jersey.

As expected, Alberto Contador was crowned as the general classification winner - in the process sealing his third Tour title in four years - after finishing 39 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck.

Cavendish entered the 102.5-kilometre 20th stage from Longjumeau to Paris knowing that he would snatch the green jersey by storming to a win and hoping that Petacchi finished outside the top six.

In the end there was no such luck as Petacchi showed his determination by clinging on to second place - one ahead of Julian Dean - behind the British rider, who emerged on the outside in the late stages to leave the rest of the field trailing in his wake.

"Today was the pinnacle, a lot of people said that I still had a good chance of getting the green," Cavendish said. "But I kept saying that would either be good luck on my part or bad luck on Alessandro's part. Today it was just about focusing on winning here, the most beautiful finish in the world."

The final stage got off to a farcical start after Radioshack's riders were ordered to remove special jerseys designed to commemorate Lance Armstrong - competing in his final Tour - and his Livestrong foundation.

After that the race was a virtual procession until Cavendish's late heroics, with Contador managing to successfully cruise to his coronation after avoiding any mishap that could have proved ruinous to his chances of overall success.

The white jersey, awarded to the best rider under 26, went to Schleck, while the spotted jersey handed to the best mountain rider was claimed by Anthony Charteau.

Stage 20: Longjumeau to Paris
1 Mark Cavendish - HTC-Columbia - 2:42:21
2 Alessandro Petacchi - Lampre-Farnese
3 Julian Dean - Garmin-Transitions
4 Jurgen Roelandts - Omega Pharma-Lotto
5 Oscar Freire - Rabobank
6 Gerald Ciolek - Team Milram
7 Thor Hushovd - Cervelo Test Team
8 Matti Breschel - Team Saxo Bank
9 Robbie McEwen - Katusha Team
10 Daniel Oss - Liquigas-Doimo

General Classification Final Standings
1 Alberto Contador - Astana - 91:58:48
2 Andy Schleck - Team Saxo Bank - +00:39
3 Denis Menchov - Rabobank - +02:01
4 Samuel Sanchez - Euskaltel-Euskadi - +03:40
5 Jurgen van den Broeck - Omega Pharma-Lotto - +06:54
6 Robert Gesink - Rabobank - +09:31
7 Ryder Hesjedal - Garmin-Transitions - +10:15
8 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver - Katusha Team - +11:37
9 Roman Kreuziger - Liquigas-Doimo - +11:54
10 Christopher Horner - Team Radioshack - +12:02
23 Lance Armstrong - Team Radioshack - 39:20
24 Bradley Wiggins - Team Sky - +39:24

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