In what was the longest stage (232km) of the 95th tour from Cholet to Chateauroux, the Team Colombia rider worked his way up and in a sprint for the finish, got in front of the chasing pack to win.
Mark Cavendish
Second was Spain's Oscar Freire, third was Erik Zabel, fourth was Thor Hushovd with Australian Baden Cooke in fifth.
Stefan Schumacher retains his yellow jersey.
After the race, Cavendish told Highroad's Press Office: This is far and away the biggest win of my career. "Everyone knows what the Tour is, when you're a kid you watch it on tv, you dream of being there. I've always known how important the Tour is."
The Isle Of Man born rider also praised his team-mates saying: "They did everything they could do to help me there, and I had to do my best to pay them back and win. "They've worked with total commitment all week. Today we had to top the podium. I couldn't really come away without the victory.
"Gerald Ciolek led me out from 600 metres. That's a long way to go in the headwind, but you saw how fast he went past the other guys. "Then when Renshaw went with Thor Hushovd] with 250 metres to that was a bit early in the sprint for me to accelerate."
"But after Renshaw had given Hushovd a good lead-out then my own final acceleration would have been less efficent if I had waited for my usual distance." "So I had to go for it when they did."
"Fortunately my strength was enough to take me all the way to the line. I was able to hold it all the way there and it all paid off.""I want to go all the way to Paris. To plan to do otherwise would be disrespectful to the organisers, my team, the other riders and the race."