Cavendish wins 7th stage of Tour de France

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

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.

Cavendish, who claimed his first victory of the 98th edition on Wednesday, opened his Tour de France account at Chateauroux in 2008 when he beat Spanish ace Oscar Freire and German legend Erik Zabel to the line.

In recent years Zabel has been a consultant to Cavendish, and his HTC-Highroad team put on sprint train master class to show their rivals how it's done on the flat home straights.

All Cavendish had to do was emerge from behind the wheel of lead-out man Mark Renshaw inside the final 200 metres and go hell for leather to the finish line - where he beat Petacchi with ease.

"You guys are the best," an emotional Cavendish shouted at the finish.

He added: "I didn't have to do anything. They delivered to the last 150 metres to go today and I just had to finish it off."

Andre Greipel, a former teammate of Cavendish's and now one of his biggest rivals, was third for Omega-Pharma after benefiting from some team support himself.

The German, however, had started his sprint early and ran out of gas too soon.

Cavendish, who has claimed he is able to produce a second 'kick' during his sprint if necessary, said he had no fear of having to use it in spite of seeing Greipel come up the outside of him.

"I didn't use it today," added the Manxman. "I knew when he (Greipel) came past me he'd come from a long way back. I knew he'd start dying at the end.

"I know his style - I study all my rivals. I usually need couple of pedal revs to get up to speed and he needs a few more."

Greipel, who is making his race debut having been kept out of the race by HTC in previous years because of Cavendish's success, could only concede defeat.

"It was a really good team effort," said Greipel.

"I had a great position today and I went for it. If you want to win, sometimes you have to take risks."

While one Briton was celebrating, another was crying tears of frustration.

Around 43km from the finish, yellow jersey contender Bradley Wiggins suffered a broken collarbone after being caught up in a crash that took down around a dozen riders.

Wiggins finished fourth overall in 2009 and his recent victory in the Criterium du Dauphine had raised hopes he was set for another tilt at a podium place.

Team Sky sports director Shane Sutton lamented: "Everyone knew the form he was in and I think everyone was hoping to see the 2009 Brad step up. I am sure he would have been a real contender."

American sprinter Tyler Farrar and podium hopeful Levi Leipheimer of RadioShack were caught up in the same crash, as well as Frenchman Remi Pauriol, who also crashed out with a broken collarbone.

The Americans scrambled to finish although Leipheimer, who also crashed in the rain on Thursday, lost 3:06 on the stage to tumble down the overall standings.

Spaniard Jose Joaquin Rojas of Movistar, meanwhile, collected enough points during the stage to retake possession of the green jersey from Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert.

Garmin-Cervelo rider Hushovd will go into the first of two consecutive days in the hilly Massif Central region with a 01sec lead on Australian Cadel Evans.