Mark Cavendish, a sprinter who has been fighting for survival in the Alps, roared back into life on Friday with a staggering stage triumph against the odds that made him Britain's most successful Tour de France winner in history.

He has now won nine Tour de France stages in just 13 months, including five this year, to take him past Barry Hoban's record.

Cavendish, who could yet make it 10 stage wins on the Champs-Elysees tomorrow – has also won six stages of the Giro D'Italia during those 13 months. L'Equipe, the French sports paper, has, with good cause, dubbed him 'Le Phenomenon Anglaise' and in cycling terms he has been the only story to match that of the clash between Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong in this year's Tour.

Friday's triumph was one of the hardest earned of his career in a race ridden at a furious pace, so much so that the leaders arrived in Aubenas a full 35 minutes ahead of their estimated arrival time. That suited Cavendish and his trusty lead-out men fine but the category-two climb outside Aubenas certainly did not.

If the stage had been in the first week we would have put it down as a sprinters' stage but at the end of the third week, we weren't sure," Cavendish said. I said at the team meeting in the morning, 'Just stay with me over the climb and lets see'. I made the top of the climb my finish line and everything else after that was a bonus.

As ever, Cavendish owes a huge debt to his Columbia train, who all put in massive turns chasing down an attack lead by world champion Alessandro Ballan. The veteran George Hincapie was riding with a suspected broken collarbone while Tony Martin has flogged himself throughout the Tour in the service of Cavendish.

Although mathematically still in contention with Hushovd for the green jersey, awarded to the winner of the points competition, that can happen only if Cavendish wins Saturday's two intermediate sprints and the stage and the Norwegian finishes nowhere and then crashes out of the bunch sprint in Paris, failing to score.

Somebody who has fought for the jersey like that, I can't compete with that, it was humiliating for me the other day when he rode like he didThor is a worthy winner, he deserves to win it. I am just going to go back to my original plan and concentrate on stage wins, I got a bit carried away in the race for the green.

Watch the video here: