Britain's Mark Cavendish, riding for team Columbia, took the sixth stage of the 2008 Tour de France between Cholet and Chateauroux on July 10, the longest stage of this year's race.

It was the first time in a decade that Chateauroux hosted the finish of a Tour stage, Mario Cipollini winning in 1998 ahead of Erik Zabel.

Like 10 years ago, it came down to a mass sprint, which Cavendish won, easily dispatching the challenges from Rabobank's Oscar Freire and Zabel, now racing for Milram.

"It was really close it the end. There was a time when I thought we were going to catch the escape way too early and I had a chat with Thor [Hushovd] and I said, `Maybe we're going a bit too quickly.' He told me, `No, they're playing with us, they're going to accelerate again," Cavendish said after the race, as quoted by the Tour's official website letour.com.

Credit Agricole's Hushovd finished fourth, which proved sufficient for the Norvegian, who already has one stage win to his name this year, to take the green jersey of the leader in the sprinters' rankings.

In the overall classification, German Stefan Schumacher from Gerolsteiner kept his yellow jersey, finishing in the main group of riders on equal time with the stage winner.

"We will see how things go on the climb to Super Besse. I'll have a few days in the lead and I also have a stage win. Everything now is a bonus but I will certainly not give up tomorrow. I'll fight to keep the jersey. I know it will be very difficult with the mountain stage coming up but we'll hit it hard and do everything possible," Schumacher said.

The next stage will start in Aigurande and end 195.5km later in Super Besse in the Massif Central, marking the first opportunity for climbers to showcase their abilities. It features two fourth-category climbs half-way through the stage and two second-category climbs in quick succession at the end, including the finish in Super Besse.