The Isle of Man cyclist battled over the second climb of the Col de l'Escrinet on stage 19 to stay in contention and then take his ninth Tour stage win in just three years as a professional.

 

 

The tally takes him past Barry Hoban's record of eight, and sees him rapidly homing in on the number of victories achieved by the best sprinters of previous generations.
 

The unexpected win also sets up the possibility of Cavendish making it six stage wins on the Champs Elysees on Sunday.

 

That is a feat not achieved since Freddy Maertens won eight stages in the 1976 Tour.

 

Maertens won five stages in 1981, but since then no sprinter has won more than four in a single race.
 

The Columbia rider finished the 178-kilometere stage in 3 hours 50min 35sec, winning it with a long sprint to the line after the peloton caught escapees Alessandro Ballan and Laurent Lefevre only a couple kilometers from the end.

 

It was an impressive performance, considering the stage had three categorised climbs, including a Category 2 ascent close to the finish.

 

He won the stage ahead of Norwegian Thor Hushovd, who came in second and retained the green point jersey.

 

Cavendish and the other sprinters finished in a group of 12 riders four seconds ahead of the main field, which included yellow jersey-holder Alberto Contador and other general classification contenders, including Britain's Bradley Wiggins.

 

However, Contador's Astana teammate Armstrong was in the lead group and picked up four seconds in the overall standings, which may help him hold on to a podium position and hold off Wiggins.

 

While Contador still holds a lead of 4:11 over the second-placed Schleck, Armstrong moved within 5:21 of Contador in third.

 

Perhaps more importantly, Armstrong widened his lead to 15 seconds over fourth-placed Wiggins, who trails Contador by 5:36. Astana's Kloden remains fifth in the overall, 5:38 behind.

 

The Tour is now set up for a showdown in tomorrows Stage 20, a 167k trek that has five climbs and finishes atop Mont Ventoux, a 21.1-km climb that may well shuffle the overall standings.

 

The Tour ends on Sunday with the traditional ride along the Champs Elysees in Paris.