TOUR DE FRANCE: Cavendish storms to fourth stage win in Bordeaux

 MARK Cavendish kept his hopes of capturing the green jersey alive with his fourth stage win of the 2010 Tour de France with a typically blistering finish in Bordeaux.

The Brit bided his time before roaring past sprint rival Alessandro Petacchi and across the line to clinch maximum points and reaffirm his status as the fastest man on two wheels.

Again Cavendish expunged any doubts that he would suffer without lead-out man Mark Renshaw, riding away from the rest of the sprinters, who resigned themselves to defeat as soon as the Manxman made his move.

Team Sky threatened to upset the apple-cart and their train took control of proceedings with Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas to the fore.

Cavendish at one stage appeared to be boxed in against the rails but as soon as he sniffed an opening he seized it and with it his 14th career Tour de France stage win.

 "After the first week of this Tour I'm really happy now, that was an incredible win again," said Cavendish, who revealed he has been suffering from bronchitis of late.

"Again all the guys in the team were fantastic and after they had worked so hard I couldn't come away with anything less than a win.

"I've been sick for the last few days and I wasn't even sure if I was going to compete today but I was able to do it so it's great to win.

"There's only 150km to go now and I think I'm ready for a break."

Petacchi retook control of the green jersey by finishing third as second went to Julian Dean of Garmin with previous points leader Thor Hushovd finishing outside of the top ten.

Cavendish currently sits third in the points standings with a total of 197 - six behind Hushovd and 16 behind Petacchi with one more sprint finish to come on Sunday in Paris.

The HTC-Columbia rider will be hoping to repeat last year's feat of taking victory on the Champs Elysees and that Hushovd is not second and Petacchi finishes outside the top seven.

In a flat-pan 198km stage from Salies-de-Bearn to Bordeaux, there was no movement in the overall standings with current maillot jaune Alberto Contador and his closest rival Andy Schleck, happy to stick in the peleton with Saturday's time-trial set to decide the destination of the yellow jersey.

Daniel Oss of Liquigas, Saxo Bank's Matti Bresche , Benoit Vaugrenard of Française des Jeux and Quick-Step's Jerome Pineau led the breakaway after 18km and stayed ahead of the peleton for majority of the stage.

All but Oss were swallowed up and while the Italian battled manfully, he was engulfed by the pack with 3.6km to go.