For Stage 4, the riders and drivers are meant to get from Al Salamiya to Al-Hofuf. The terrain is easier and faster to travel on, but navigation issues are characteristic of today’s challenge and could make the difference between winning and losing.
Bikes
At the first checkpoint, Ross Branch was the fastest, but thanks to the time bonus accumulated by Kevin Benavides (who opens the way gets it), the latter still was the virtual leader of Stage 4.
At km 82, Nacho Cornejo took the lead away from Branch, but Benavides was still the virtual leader. Štefan Svitko was second, not too far behind Cornejo. However, at the next checkpoint (126 km), he had lost 12′ 30″.
188 km into the stage, Cornejo took the actual lead of the stage. Despite the bonuses, Kevin Benavides had lost his leadership. Ricky Brabec was second and was also accumulating bonuses as he was opening the way really close to Benavides.
After taking the lead, Cornejo never looked back. He clinched Stage 4 win ahead of Ricky Brabec and Kevin Benavides by 2′ 59″ and 3′ 18″. Cornejo is also the new leader in the general standings ahead of Branch and Brabec with a gap of 1′ 15″ and 4′ 56″, respectively.
Quads
After winning Stage 1 and 2, but struggling yesterday, Marcelo Medeiros immediately got back to business and took the lead of the stage at km 82. Manuel Andujar was second, just 21″ behind. Juraj Varga and Giroud were not too far either.
Things changed quickly, though. After 156 km, Andujar became the new leader, with Giroud following 40″ behind. Medeiros lost 4′ 30″ and Juraj Varga even 28 minutes.
In the end, Andujar managed to take the victory in Stage 4. Giroud had a solid day finishing just 32″ behind. Medeiros only managed to finish third, 10′ 36″ behind. Due to a tough day for Juraj Varga, Andujar is also the new general standing leader with a gap of 21′ 24″ to Giroud and 24′ 07″ ahead of Medeiros.
Cars
Nasser Al Attiyah, who finished on three wheels in yesterday’s stage, was the fastest across the first checkpoint. The top 16 were all within a one-minute window.
At km 156, Al Attiyah was still leading, and he also managed to increase his gap. He was 1′ 21″ ahead of Sebastien Loeb and 1′ 38″ in front of Yazeed Al Rajhi. Sainz and Peterhansel were also following close behind.
Despite dominating the whole day, Al Attiyah was overtaken just at the end by Yazeed Al Rajhi and Sebastien Loeb. The latter was the quickest overall and won Stage 4 with a gap of 1′ 08″ and 1′ 22″ to Al Rajhi and Al Attiyah.
Al Rajhi is still the leader in the general standings, 4′ 19″ ahead of Sainz and 11′ 03″ clear of Al Attiyah.