Evans wins the Tour de France

The 34-year-old Evans, the oldest Tour winner since World War II, showed resilience throughout as he broke three-times champion Alberto Contador's unbeaten run in a grand tour since 2007.

Luxembourg's Andy Schleck was second overall for the third year in succession, 1:34 behind Evans, who claimed his maiden grand tour title.

Frank Schleck was third, 2:30 off the pace as two brothers climbed on the final Tour de France podium for the first time.

Evans's victory also broke Spanish domination of the race after Alberto Contador (2007, 09, 10), Oscar Pereiro (2006) and Carlos Sastre (2008) had claimed five titles in a row.

The Australian only took the overall leader's yellow jersey after Saturday's final time trial in which he humbled Andy Schleck by 2:31, easily overcoming a 57-second deficit.

Cavendish was also made to wait to finally claim the green jersey for the points classification after starting the day with a 15-point advantage over Spain's Jose Roaquin Rojas.

The stage started at a leisurely pace as the traditional final parade set off for a 95-km ride from Creteil, where a tribute was paid to two-times champion Laurent Fignon, who died of cancer last year.

Tension rose when the peloton reached Paris, with six riders powering away from the pack to snatch their share of the limelight on the Champs Elysees.

Jeremy Roy, Kristijan Koren, Lars Bak, Sergio Paulinho, Christophe Riblon and Ben Swift built a 39-second gap but they were reeled in about four kilometres from the finish as the sprinters' teams swapped at the front of the bunch.

The HTC-Highroad team set their usual lead-out train for Cavendish, who duly delivered to snatch his 20th Tour de France stage win.

The Briton beat Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen and German Andre Greipel, who were second and third respectively.

Garmin-Cervelo, who won the team time trial and stages through American Tyler Farrar and Norwegian Thor Hushov, won the team standings.

Frenchman Pierre Rolland, who won the prestigious stage to l'Alpe d'Huez, claimed the white jersey for the best under-25 rider while Spaniard Samuel Sanchez won the polka-dot jersey for the best climber.

Tour de France, Stage 21, Champs Elysees
1. Mark Cavendish (UK) HTC-Highroad - two hours 27 minutes two seconds
2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling - at same time
3. Andre Greipel (Ger) Omega Pharma-Lotto - at same time
4. Tyler Farrar (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo - at same time
5. Fabian Cancellara (Sui) Team Leopard-Trek - at same time
6. Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale - at same time
7. Borut Bozic (Ser) Vacansoleil-DCM - at same time
8. Tomas Vaitkus (Lit) Pro Team Astana - at same time
9. Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Quick Step Cycling - at same time
10. Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra) Saur-Sojasun - at same time

General classification at end of 2011 Tour de France:
1. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team - at 83 hours 45 minutes and 20 seconds
2. Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek - at one minute 34 seconds
3. Frank Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek - at two minutes 30 seconds
4. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar - at three minutes 20 seconds
5. Alberto Contador (Spa) Saxo-Bank Sunguard - at three minutes 57 seconds
6. Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi - at four minutes 55 seconds
7. Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - at six minutes five seconds
8. Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas - at seven minutes 23 seconds
9. Tom Danielson(USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo - at eight minutes 15 seconds
10. Jean-Cristophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale - at ten minutes 11 seconds