Wiggins wins Tour de France

The 32-year-old triple Olympic champion finished the mostly ceremonial stage to Paris with a 3min 21sec lead over another team-mate, Chris Froome, in the general classification. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) finalised the placings at third overall, 6min 19sec behind.

“It's hard to take in as it happens," said Wiggins. "Every lap of the Champs-Elysees was goose pimple stuff.

"We had a job to do with Mark (Cavendish) today and we were all motivated to do that so it made it go a lot quicker.

"The concentration was high and for Mark to finish it off like that, well, it couldn't get any better."

The stage victory by Cavendish was his third in this year's Tour, the 23rd of his career, and the fourth time he has won on the final day.

The 2011 world road champion finished ahead of the green jersey winner Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) in a hectic finale to the 120km stage from Rambouillet.

Cavendish's victory added an exclamation mark to the domination of his team at this year's event, with Sky winning six stages and the general classification.

"That was incredible, with the yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins pulling on the front going into the last kilometre," said Cavendish. "I went early and gave it everything. It’s the cherry on the top of a wonderful Tour."

In a campaign that was reminiscent of his childhood hero, Spain's Miguel Indurain, Wiggins sealed the Tour with two time trial wins, and his team providing crucial support in the mountain stages in between.

Wiggins's victory comes a year after he crashed out of the race with a broken collarbone and three years after underlining his yellow jersey credentials with a fourth place finish.

George Hincapie (BMC) led the peloton onto the Champs-Elysees for the first of eight laps before an 11-man breakaway led by Jens Viogt (RadioShack-Nissan), established itself.

With the pace of the peloton ramping up, the break worked hard to build a narrow lead of 30 seconds, but with 13km to go Voigt attacked along with Sebastien Minard (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Rui Costa (Movistar).

The trio managed to stay at the head of the race until the 3km mark, when it was caught by the peloton led by Wiggins's Sky.

Led out first by Wiggins, then Edvald Boasson Hagen, Cavendish took control of the race with only Goss responding to get on his wheel.

As Cavendish and Goss raced to the line, Sagan pushed hard to bridge to the pair, passing Goss just before the finish.

With his yellow jersey secured, Wiggins finished in 53rd place, nine seconds behind Cavendish.

Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) won the white jersey for best young rider aged 25 and less, and the polka dot jersey for the best climber was claimed by Thomas Voeckler (Europcar).

Stage 20: 120km, Rambouillet to Paris
1 Mark Cavendish (GBR) Sky 3hr 08min 07sec      
2 Peter Sagan (SVK) Liquigas-Cannondale            
3 Matthew Goss (AUS) Orica GreenEDGE            
4 Juan Jose Haedo (ARG) Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank            
5 Kris Boeckmans (BEL) Vacansoleil-DCM            
6 Greg Henderson (NZL) Lotto Belisol           
7 Borut Bozic (SLO) Astana           
8 Andre Greipel (GER) Lotto Belisol     
9 Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) Sky            
10 Jimmy Engoulvent (FRA) Saur-Sojasun            

General classification
1 Bradley Wiggins (GBR) Sky 87hr 34min 42sec     
2 Christopher Froome (GBR) Sky 0:03:21     
3 Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:06:19     
4 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (BEL) Lotto Belisol 0:10:15     
5 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC 0:11:04     
6 Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) RadioShack-Nissan 0:15:43     
7 Cadel Evans (AUS) BMC 0:15:51     
8 Pierre Rolland (FRA) Europcar 0:16:31     
9 Janez Brajkovic (SLO) Astana 0:16:38     
10 Thibaut Pinot (FRA) FDJ-Big Mat 0:17:17