Today's rainy and chilly 167 kilometer stage 11 of the 2011 Tour de France developed as classic sprinter stages usually do.

A small group of riders including Delage (FDJ), Grivko (Astana), Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun), Boom (Rabobank), Perez (Euskaltel) and Valentin (Cofidis) managed to escape from the main peloton after a few kilometers launching away in a quest for the magic win in the finish town of Lavaur at the foot of the Pyrenees.

The quest, however, turned out to be unsuccessful.

Great Britain's Mark Cavendish of Team HTC-HighRoad and the Isle of Man blasted to the eighteenth Tour de France stage victory of his career at the end of the stage - his third of the 2011 race and a victory which also earned him the lead in the green points competition and revenge over former teammate Andre Greipel who convincingly beat Cavendish in yesterday's Tour de France stage.

Cavendish was the fastest man in stage eleven from Blaye-les-Mines to Lavaur, out-sprinting André Greipel of Team Omega Pharma-Lotto and Team Garmin-Cervélo's Tyler Farrar.

Cavendish was delighted to lead the green points jersey competition. "It's incredible to have the green jersey, it's the most beautiful jersey in the world."

Cavendish also praised teammate Tony Martin who in spite of being the team's favorite for the general classification still spent a lot of energy on helping Cavendish in the final kilometers of today's stage.

"I have to thank my team-mates for the work they did today, even the guys who are in the top ten overall gave it one hundred percent and that shows what a great team we are."

"There are two more bunch sprints in this year's race, one in Montpellier and the other in Paris and I want to try to win both of them."

"It's not easy fighting for the green jersey but I'm going to keep going and try to keep hold of it right through to the end."

Team Europcar's Thomas Voeckler maintains the overall Tour de France lead before the race reaches the first mountains tomorrow - a very exciting and tough climber's stage awaits.

Thursday's stage 12 of the 2011 Tour de France will feature three climbs, including the famous Luz-Ardiden ascent at the finish.

"It's 211 kilometers long and it's pretty hard," Team BMC Racing's GC favorite Cadel Evans told Roadcycling.com and our mobile sister site Roadcycling.mobi.

"The first stage in the mountains of any Grand Tour is always a bit of something where someone has a bad day and someone has an extraordinarily good day. It is always some degree of an indicator. I'll just make my own race and see how the others go and hopefully I'll be competitive, or even better."

Defending Tour de France champion Alberto Contador expects to see reluctant riding from the GC contenders in tomorrow's stage - similar to the passive type of riding we've seen in the first mountain stages of recent editions of the Tour de France, but contrary to the riding done by historic champions such as Eddy Merckx - and contrary to the preferences of us here at Roadcycling.com who want to experience the GC contenders show true courage in early attacks - even if they lead to failure in the end.

"At Luz Ardiden, I think that everyone will be waiting. Someone has to open the race, especially the Schleck brothers but until we see how the stage develops we cannot really say anything. Also, the weather will have a great influence."

Contrary to the opinion of many pro cycling analysts Contador reiterated that other GC favorites will have to take the initiative during the stage "I'm still recovering from the crashes from the first week and my time will come a little later, but I guess the Pyrenees and the Alps are equally important."

Asked about the condition of his injured knee Contador told Roadcycling.com "My knee is responding well, so I'm obviously very happy, but keep in mind that today I didn't climb the Tourmalet. I have to see how it responds and on that basis I will take a decision how to do the race on the last climb of tomorrow's stage."

For the first time in many days the Tour peloton fortunately experienced no serious crashes. This in spite of the seriously bad weather and huge quantities of rain in the final hectic kilometers.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com and Roadcycling.mobi for our continued coverage of this year's Tour de France and please support our advertisers. While you wait for the Tour peloton to reach the mountains, why not check out our Tour de France preview and predictions?