After dropping 10 minutes to his rival Despres on Tuesday, Spain's Marc Coma bounced back to shave two minutes off the gap on the fourth stage of the 2012 Dakar. Dutchman Frans Verhoeven (Sherco/MICHELIN) claimed today's third-fastest time.

It was extremely hot when the bikers pulled out of the bivouac in San Juan early this morning. The same muggy, unpleasant heat and stormy skies followed the competitors all the way along the 270km road section to Gandacol, location of the start of SS4, a 326km run between Sierras de Umango and Toro Negro. Today's trail was predominantly rough and rocky, with two 30km portions of off-road riding.

In this part of Argentina, Ruta 40 cuts a path between two UNESCO world heritage sites, the Talampaya and Ishigualasto National Parks. Because of the narrow canyons that have sliced gorges through the red bedrock, you could be forgiven for thinking you had landed on Mars.

At the end of SS4, Cyril Despres was the first rider to show, and he looked a little bit like an alien from space himself. His face was drawn after the physical ordeal he had just been through in the suffocating heat. "There's been heavy rain in the region recently and the tracks were badly cut up," he reported after catching his breath. "The route took us 125km up a dry river bed which was littered with stones and rocks. My day was actually saved by the strength of my front MICHELIN tire. It took one particularly big knock, but it was my aluminium wheel that broke, and not my tire."

Today's stage winner Marc Coma showed up at the control in the Frenchman's dust after spending the day pushing as hard as possible: "It was very difficult. The stage was technically very challenging and there was quite a bit of water in certain rivers. My objective was to close the gap to Cyril as much as possible before tomorrow's Fiambala stage which promises to be awesome…"

Frans Verhoeven, whose bike was equipped with the latest MICHELIN Desert Race front tire, posted the third fastest time despite suffering an electrical problem during the early part of the stage. Helder Rodriguez was fourth, ahead of Portugal's Pedro Gonçalves (Husqvarna/MICHELIN) who got lost at Km99. The error cost him more than 10 minutes.

After the finish, the bikers had another 154km road section to cover before reaching the overnight halt in Chilecito, after passing by the foot of the snow-capped Belgrano Mountain (altitude: 6,251 metres).

Leg 4 - positions:
1 - Coma (KTM) 4:16:43, 2 - Despres (KTM) +0:02:02, 3 - Verhoeven (Sherco) +0:08:26...

Provisional overall positions:
1 - Despres (KTM) 11:50:27, 2 - Coma (KTM) +0:08:10, 3 - Rodrigues (Yamaha) +0:26:48...

distribué par

Ce noodl a été diffusé par Compagnie Générale des établissements Michelin SA et initialement mise en ligne sur le site http://www.michelin.com. La version originale est disponible ici.

Ce noodl a été distribué par noodls dans son format d'origine et sans modification sur 2012-01-05 16:02:56 PM et restera accessible depuis ce lien permanent.

Cette annonce est protégée par les règles du droit d'auteur et toute autre loi applicable, et son propriétaire est seul responsable de sa véracité et de son originalité.