Michael Albasini won stage four of the Paris-Nice in a sprint finish, but Andrew Talansky was close behind to retain the overall lead.
Thursday's 200km stage took the race to Saint-Vallier, where Albasini and Talansky were part of a group who made a break for it in the final kilometres.
Orica GreenEdge's Albasini got his nose in front of Astana Pro Team's Maxim Iglinskiy and Peter Velits of Omega Pharma-Quick Step to take the stage win, while sixth place was enough for Garmin-Sharp rider Talansky to remain three seconds clear in the overall classification.
Astana's Andriy Grivko remains in second place.
Earlier in the stage, Europcar's Thomas Voeckler led a seven-man breakaway that got as much as four minutes clear of the peloton, but the last remains of this group were caught with 14 kilometres left going into the last of the stage's seven climbs.
