Today’s stage was 694km long andGary and Philip ended up assisting their Canadian buddy Don who crashed on the course. They waited to re-route trucks and cars away from Don while alerting the rescue helicopter. As soon as Don was airlifted out of there Gary and Philip carried on however at that stage the trucks and cars had carved up the trail so there were huge diverts which the lads had to navigate their way through which cost them lots of time. Thankfully they’ll get some of the time spent on the rescue mission back in the morning and although they’re tired and hungry they’re both in good spirits and looking forward to getting out way ahead of the trucks and cars tomorrow.  There also appears to be some casualties with a decreasing number of bikers left in the race too. Having said all of that Philip holds a position of 153rd and Gary a very close 152nd place after today’s stage. Pending validation of the results, Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM) picked up his 3rd stage victory and 7th on the Dakar by finishing this 4th day 1.17 ahead of Frenchman Cyril Despres (KTM), who rode an excellent race having started in 48th place this morning. 3rd place went to American Jonah Street (KTM). As a result, in the general standings, Coma now has a lead of 42.57 over Street, the new 2nd placed rider and leader of the marathon category, and 43.42 over Frenchman David Frétigné (Yamaha), 3rd placed and leader of the 450cc category. As regards Cyril Despres (KTM), he is now 11th in the general standings.
Marc Coma  said today “It was a nice stage with some good riding at the beginning then a bit more navigation. The landscape changed, making it a bit more technical, and more physical because you start to feel all the efforts put in so far. Today, it was shorter but harder than the other days. It was a bit like Morocco, where the tricks are nice and quick. I didn’t have any problems with my tires. Since it was a shorter stage, we chose to use foam bibs, and I haven’t had any problems with them. What was strange was having to open 4 or 5 gates. They are cattle gates for keeping the cattle from leaving the farms. In the Patagonia – Atacama the tradition is to close them behind you so everyone is on an equal footing, but this time I left them open, especially as it was my team-mate Viladoms behind me!”

More from us tomorrow after we hopefully speak to the guys later. Many thanks to all of you for emailing your support, much appreciated and being passed on to the lads as we speak to them.

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