Frenchman Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar won the fourth stage of the 2011 Paris-Nice race earlier today after escaping in an early breakaway and beating the other three breakaway riders in a sprint to the finish line in Belleville.

Voeckler clinched his first career stage win at the race and moved up to second overall after making his move about 300 yards from the finish line. He held off Remi Pauriol, Thomas De Gendt and Remi Di Gregorio.

Castelli-sponsored Team Garmin-Cervelo sprinter Heinrich Haussler won the peloton's sprint to the finish line.

De Gendt reclaimed the yellow jersey from overnight leader Matt Goss, who was in the chasing pack and dropped to fourth overall.

Voeckler was given a provisional winning time of 5 hours, 4 minutes, 20 seconds over the undulating 118-mile course from Creches-sur-Saone to Belleville.

Thomas de Gendt of Team Vacansoleil leads Paris-Nice overall ten seconds ahead of Voeckler and 16 seconds ahead of Remi Pauriol. Team HTC-HighRoad's Matthew Goss is 4th overall and fellow sprinter Haussler is sixth.

Tomorrow's 119-mile stage 5 of the Paris-Nice 2011 from Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise to Vernoux-en-Vivarais will favor climbers such as Team RadioShack's Janez Brajkovic and Levi Leipheimer, Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins and Team Saxo Bank-SunGard's Chris Anker Sorensen.

Watch video highlights from the 2011 Tirreno-Adriatico in the videos section here on Roadcycling.com after each day's stage.

Download Roadcycling.com's new cycling iPhone app online at http://itunes.apple.com/app/roadcycling-cycling-app/id395146493