MARK Cavendish has powered the way to his fourth stage win of this year's Tour de France today, a victory that strengthened his overall lead in the Tour's points competition.

Cavendish blasted past the rest of the pack at the end of stage 15’s race from Limoux to Montpellier, withAmerican Tyler Farrar second and Italy's Alessandro Petacchi third. 

Since turning pro in 2007, Cavendish has now taken 70 wins, including 29 Grand Tour stages and 19 in the Tour de France. Today's victory is his eighth in the 2011 season. 

"It's not me, it's my team that really made this victory possible," Cavendish said afterwards,

"Right from the start, all nine riders did a great job today and after a few very hard days in the mountains, that's not so easy.

"I was tired after the Pyrenees too, but I use different muscles for sprinting than for climbing, so I was ok.

"It was a difficult stage, with lots of attacks at the end but my team kept control of things. Without them my win wouldn't have happened.

As for the green jersey, Cavendish said, "I'll keep trying and see what I can do. Hopefully I'll be 

able to take it all the way to Paris.