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.
“Thank you to everyone who supported me, my team mates, my rivals, everyone for this incredible experience,” said Evans, who won one stage during the race, after stepping on the podium on the Champs Elysees.
“Thank you for that fantastic race. It was a wonderful experience. I couldn’t be happier. I had been thinking about this for 20 years.”
Frank Schleck was third, 2:30 off the pace as two brothers climbed on the final Tour de France podium for the first time.
“Cadel deserved to win. Second place in the Tour is not nothing and being with my broher on the podium is a famliy’s dream. Our parents are proud of us,” said Andy Schleck.
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 kilometers 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.
