<div><div class="yn-story-content">
                <p>BELLEVILLE, France (AFP) – French champion Thomas Voeckler ended an eight year wait for a stage win in the Paris-Nice race here on Wednesday when he won the fourth stage.</p>
                <p>
The 31-year-old crossed the line ahead of France's Remi Pauriol and Belgian Thomas de Gendt, who regained the leader's yellow jersey off Australian Matthew Goss, after the 191km ride from Creches-sur-Saone.</p>
                <p>
"I have competed in the Paris-Nice since 2003 and I had yet to win a stage, this really is a huge relief," said Voekler.</p>
                <p>
Australian Heinrich Haussler led the peloton home around a dozen seconds behind.</p>
                <p>
The first three over the line had along with Belgian rider Francis De Greef broken away from the peloton in the sixth kilometre and by 65km had a lead of over five minutes.</p>
                <p>
Their lead had been trimmed to 1min 15sec by the time they got to the summit of the last climb of the day with 35km to go but prompted by the admirable De Gendt they managed to keep the chasing pack at bay, though, De Greef was unable to stay with them and lost touch in the final part of the stage.</p>
                <p>
De Gendt was only interested in regaining the yellow jersey after Goss took it off him on Tuesday, and left it to Voeckler and Pauriol to fight out the stage win honours with the more experienced Frenchman taking it for his third win of the season - having won a stage of the Tour of the Mediterranean and the Tour du Haut-Var title.</p>
                <p>
"We really dictated the stage well," said Voeckler, who in previous years has twice finished second in stages of the race.</p>
                <p>
Voeckler, who briefly wore the yellow jersey in the 2004 Tour de France, praised De Gendt for his efforts and nicknamed him the 'machine' and added that the young Belgian - who won the opening stage - could pull off a surprise overall win.</p>
                <p>
"We (him and De Gendt) were the two strongest of our group, I believe, but he was even stronger than I was," smiled Voeckler, who had already noticed De Gendt's potential last year while with a minor team.</p>
                <p>
"He could surprise a lot of people (in the Paris-Nice)!"</p>
                <p>
"For my part I was not interested in finishing second or third in the stage, I would rather have finished in the peloton.</p>
                <p>
"When I attacked at the beginning of the stage, some of the riders said that I was going to run out of gas.</p>
                <p>
"But my goal wasn't the best climber jersey. I knew that I could last till the end."</p>
                <p>
Thursday's fifth stage is the interesting and tough 193km ride from Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise to Vernoux-en-Vivarais.</p>
                <p>
            </p></div></div><p><strong>Read more:</strong> <a class="rssreadon" rel="external" title="Voeckler ends Paris-Nice win drought   (AFP)" href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110309/sp_wl_afp/cyclingfra" target="_blank">http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110309/sp_wl_afp/cyclingfra</a></p>