Cavendish was led out perfectly for the finish after Lance Armstrong and his Astanta team had done most of the work over the mountains in a 214km stage.
"I got a good position by my team at the start [of the Turchino Pass, the day's final climb]. There were guys going backwards but it was okay; it's amazing how deep you can go when you can smell the finish...Actually, to be honest, I didn't need to go deeper - I was floating," said Mark Cavendish to www.cyclingnews.com after the race which saw his tenth stage victory of the season. 
Cavendish won the stage in a time of 4.51.17 and beat sprinters Tyler Farrar,
Allesandro Petacchi, Allan Davis, Sebastien Hinault and Davide Vigano.
Ben Swift was the second Brit home in 11th place with Daniel Lloyd 52nd, Chris Froome 84th, Bradley Wiggins 102nd, Charles Wegelius 164th and Ian Stannard 170th.
Italy's Danilo Di Luca leads the General Classification from Russia's Denis Menchov and Cavendish's team mate Michael Rogers.
Stage 12 is a 60.6km time trial.