British sprint sensation Mark Cavendish has hit back at claims that he insulted French riders at the Tour de France.

French newspaper L'Equipe yesterday cited anonymous French riders who alleged he had racially insulted them.

However, the 24-year-old Manxman, who yesterday won his fourth stage victory from this year's race to equal the British record of eight, admitted he can be difficult to handle.

"I love to come to France and I love to come here and race," said Cavendish.

"For sure I'm going to get arsey at some lad - because I'm an asshole.

"But their nationality and what they look like or where they come from is irrelevant.

"I had to laugh at that article. It would have been nice to have the name of the rider who supposedly said this so I can sort it out.

"I get a little hot-headed sometimes. When you're a rider with a public profile, you can't be friends with everybody.

"I take it as a compliment that they're going to try to start trouble about something that's not about bike riding because they've got nothing to criticise my riding about."

The win allowed Cavendish to regain the points leader's green jersey, while Rinaldo Nocentini retained the race leader's yellow jersey.

Bradley Wiggins moved back up to fifth after a ruling that he had finished 15 seconds adrift of the peloton following a crash on Tuesday was overturned.