A perfect finish saw British speedster Mark Cavendish win the second stage of the 2009 Tour de France.

The 24-year-old won four stages in 2008 before exiting early to focus on the Beijing Olympics and today'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 of Garmin-Slipstream and Agritubel's Romain Feillu were beaten in the sprint to the line by the Team Columbia-HTC rider, who is in his third season as a professional.

"It's brilliant," said Cavendish. "I was in good form, you could see the team were motivated for the sprint, all nine of us were riding out in the front there at the end.

"We were the only team for a while sprinting with Saxo-Bank and then Cervelo came in with one guy.

"When we put two guys in, when we took control we showed we meant business and I'm happy to finish it with a win."

Swiss Fabian Cancellara, who won Saturday's time-trial opener, retained the yellow jersey for his Saxo-Bank team.

Finland's Jussi Veikkanen of 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 part of the breakaway pack along with French pair Cyril Dessel and Stephane Auge and Dutchman Stef Clement which led for most of the 187 kilometres stage from Monaco to Brignoles.

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 400 metres.

Cavendish had said before the race he thought it might be too early for him to record his first win in this year's Tour and he was delighted to be proved wrong.

"I didn't know how open my legs would be," he added. "In Tours it normally takes me a few days of riding. But I felt good today.

"I was protected well, I rode intelligently, I didn't waste energy which is easy to do at the beginning of a Grand Tour when you're fresh.

"It was a pretty long sprint but I had to take it on and I was able to hold it."

It was a 51st victory of the season for the dominant Team Columbia-HTC squad.

The stage win means Cavendish will start Monday's stage in the sprinters' green jersey.

Stage 2 (Monaco - Brignoles, 187km):

1 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Team Columbia - HTC 4hrs 30mins 02secs, 2 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream, 3 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel, 4 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team, 5 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) BBOX Bouygues Telecom, 6 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram, 7 William Bonnet (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom, 8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale, 9 Koen de Kort (Ned) Skil-Shimano, 10 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale, 11 Nikolai Troussov (Rus) Team Katusha, 12 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Lampre - NGC, 13 Said Haddou (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom, 14 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia - HTC, 15 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo Test Team, 16 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC, 17 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom, 18 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne, 19 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC, 20 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano all at same time

Selected Others: 114 Bradley Wiggins (Gbr) Garmin - Slipstream 4hrs 30mins 02secs, 150 Charles Wegelius (Gbr) Silence - Lotto, 172 David Millar (Gbr) Garmin - Slipstream all at same time.