Cometh the hour, cometh the Manxman. Mark Cavendish, 23, emerged from the jostling mêlée at the climax of the 232-kilometre fifth stage of the Tour de France to support his claim as cycling’s top sprinter with an irresistible dash to the line in Châteauroux.

Cavendish made his Tour de France debut last year, when the race started in London, and had cut a dejected figure when a crash en route to Canterbury denied him the chance of success on home soil. But yesterday the rider from the Isle of Man made amends, securing his maiden victory in the Tour and leaving his rivals for dead as he took the first British stage win since David Millar’s victory in Béziers in 2002.

“It’s the biggest thing to have happened to me and to do it so young is massive,” Cavendish, of Team Columbia, said. “I came here with the intention of winning a stage and I would have gone home disappointed if I hadn’t.”

In fulfilling that ambition, Cavendish took his eighth win of the season. Already this year he has won two stages in the Giro d’Italia as well as the Madison in the World Track Championships, a discipline in which he will compete at the Beijing Olympic Games next month. “It’s harder to win a stage in the Tour than to win the Olympic Madison,” Cavendish said. “But they’re both bike races I can cross the line first in.”

In what was the final flat finish for several days, Cavendish’s win, on the 2008 Tour’s longest stage, was further proof of his growing maturity as a sprinter. He held off renowned fast finishers in Óscar Freire, of Spain, Erik Zabel, of Germany, and Thor Hushovd, of Norway, to take victory. “Although I’ve won quite a lot in my career, I had to achieve a Tour stage victory,” the Briton said. “I was anxious to do it and the team was anxious for me to do it. The team has worked selflessly all week, so today we had to top the podium.”

Cavendish’s bravado and his mane of curls have brought one or two comparisons to Mario Cipollini, the former sprint king, whose hunger for stage wins in the three leading tours of France, Italy and Spain was matched only by his talent for self-publicity. With flat stages won, Cipollini would often retire to the beaches of Tuscany as the Tour’s mountain stages loomed large. But Team GB insiders expect Cavendish, motivated by the thought of possible victory on the Champs Elysées on July 27, to battle through the Pyrenees and Alps in an attempt to hone his form for Beijing.

“I want him to finish the Tour and he does, too,” Rod Ellingworth, the Team GB coach, said this week. “He’ll gain a lot from that in terms of experience and also form ahead of the Olympics. Am I worried about the effect that three weeks on the road will have on his track form ahead of the Olympics? No. He’s so good anyway — his speed, his cadence, his ability to ride the track — that it all comes automatically to him.”

There was more praise for Cavendish from David Brailsford, the Team GB performance director. “I’m very happy that Mark could prove he’s the best sprinter,” he said. “People describe him as the Wayne Rooney of cycling, but I’d say the only thing wrong with that is that Mark is probably better.”

This afternoon there is the first summit finish of the race in Super Besse. Millar, placed third overall after expertly negotiating the tricky opening stages, has high hopes of claiming the yellow jersey. It is a long shot, but after Cavendish’s success he will feel that the force is with British cycling.

Fifth stage (Cholet to Châteauroux, 232km): 1, M Cavendish (GB, Columbia) 5hr 27min 52sec; 2, O Freire (Sp, Rabobank); 3, E Zabel (Ger, Milram); 4, T Hushovd (Nor, Crédit Agricole); 5, B Cooke (Aus, Barloworld); 6, R Hunter (SA, Barloworld); 7, L Duque (Col, Cofidis); 8, R McEwen (Aus, Silence Lotto); 9, F Chicchi (It, Liquigas); 10, J Dean (NZ, Garmin Chipotle); 11, R Förster (Ger, Gerolsteiner); 12, G Steegmans (Bel, Quick-Step); 13, R Feillu (Fr, Agritubel); 14, S Chavanel (Fr, Française des Jeux); 15, J Casper (Fr, Agritubel); 16, I Isasi (Sp, Euskaltel); 17, M Backstedt (Swe, Garmin Chipotle); 18, X Florencio (Sp, Bouygues Télécom); 19, J Pineau (Fr, Bouygues Télécom); 20, S Krauss (Ger, Gerolsteiner) all same time. Other: 50, D Millar (GB, Garmin Chipotle) same time.

Leading overall positions: 1, S Schumacher (Ge, Gerolsteiner) 19hr 32min 33sec; 2, K Kirchen (Lux, Columbia) at 12sec behind; 3, Millar same time; 4, C Evans (Aus, Silence Lotto) 21; 5, F Cancellara (Switz, Team CSC) 33; 6, C Vandevelde (US, Garmin Chipotle) 37; 7, G Hincapie (US, Columbia) 41; 8, T Lovkvist (Swe, Columbia) 47; 9, V Nibali (It, Liquigas) 58; 10, J I Gutierrez (Sp, Caisse d’Epargne) 1min 1sec. Other: 97, Cavendish 5:58.

King of the Mountains: 1, T Voeckler (Fr, Bouygues Telecom) 19pts; 2, Chavanel 11; 3, B Schröder (Ger, Milram) 9; 4, D De la Fuente (Sp, Saunier Duval) 4; 5, L Jegou (Fr, Francaise des Jeux) 3; 6, C Moreau (Fr, Agritubel) 3.

Leading sprinter positions: 1, Hushovd 88pts; 2, Freire 85; 3, Kirchen 81; 4, Zabel 72; 5, Hunter 60; 6, Cavendish 51.

Team positions: 1, Garmin Chipotle 58hr 37min 35sec; 2, Columbia at 1min 44sec behind; 3, Team CSC 2:35; 4, Cofidis 3:20.