Brignoles - Mark Cavendish of Britain easily won the second stage of the 2009 Tour de France Sunday, bursting out of the pack to win a sprint to the finish at Brignoles. The 24-year-old Team Columbia rider, widely considered the fastest road sprinter in the world, finished the 187km course from Monaco in 4 hr 30 min 02 sec, an average speed of 41.55 kph, to win the fifth Tour stage of his career.
American Tyler Farrar finished a well-beaten second, five bicycle lengths behind the winner, with Roman Feillu of France coming in third. Yukiya Arashiro, one of two Japanese riders in the Tour, finished in fifth.
Cavendish gave a large credit to his Team Columbia mates for his impressive victory.
"They are superb. They ride intelligently and efficiently... I'm glad I could win the stage for them," he told France 2 television.
All of the leading riders finished with the main pack, so Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland remains the race leader, 18 seconds ahead of title favourite Alberto Contador, with Briton Bradley Wiggins another second back in third place.
The stage was marked by a long breakaway by a group of four riders, who broke away at the 13km mark and were reeled in by the pack with less than 10km to go.
One of the breakaway riders, Jussi Vaikkanen of the Francaise des Jeux team, garnered enough points on the four modest climbs along the route to become the first-ever Finn to wear the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey during the Tour de France.
Monday's third stage, 196.5km from Marseille to La Grande-Motte, will give Cavendish and his sprinting rivals another chance to shine.
The Tour ends July 26 in Paris.
