A perfect finish saw British speedster Mark Cavendish win the second stage of the 2009 Tour de France from Monaco to Brignoles to further his standing as cycling's leading sprinter.

The 24-year-old won four stages in 2008 before exiting early to focus on the Beijing Olympics and Sunday's victory, in four hours 30 minutes and two seconds, was his fifth career win in cycling's most prestigious race.

The victory gives Cavendish increasing hope of reaching Paris on July 26 in the green jersey for the points classification champion and was his 42nd professional triumph, surpassing the previous best by a British rider of 41 held by Chris Boardman.

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) and Romain Feillu (Agritubel) were beaten in the sprint to the line by the Team Columbia-HTC rider, who is in his third season as a professional.

Swiss Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank), who triumphed in Saturday's time-trial, keeps hold of the yellow jersey.

Finland's Jussi Veikkanen (Francaise Des Jeux) had a brilliant second stage as he took maximum points on three of the four climbs to claim the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey.

Veikkanen, in his debut tour, was also part of the breakaway pack which led for most of the stage, along with French pair Cyril Dessel and Stephane Auge and Dutchman Stef Clement.

The peloton leaders began to close in on the foursome around 42km from the end and swiftly narrowed the four minute gap, eventually catching them with 10km to go.

The teams began to prepare for the final charge and a textbook sprint from Cavendish and his team-mates saw him hold off his other challengers in the final 400metres.