Caimi Franco took a large chunk out of teammate de Soultrait’s time, finishing nearly two minutes before the latter. This is an impressive debut for the rider, who also managed to take almost three minutes less to cover the 192km section of the day compared to Farres, the winner of the previous stage. Lurking in second place was the ever-present Xavier de Soultrait, and Gerard Farres was in third, 3:23 behind Franco.
From the Indian contingent, Juan Pedrero Garcia of Sherco TVS rode well to finish in fourth, while teammate Adrian Metge wasn’t too far behind, in sixth. Joaquim Rodrigues was determined to make up some time after the previous day’s issues with the coolant leak and sandstorm, and finished in ninth. Aravind KP of Sherco TVS finished in 16th, and CS Santosh rode steadily to finish in 20th. Abdul Wahid Tanveer finished in 39th place. The route for the day was cut by roughly 80km near the end of the day due to a predicted sandstorm.
The overall standings still have Xavier de Soultrait in first, Gerard Farres second and Caimi Franco third. Juan Pedrero Garcia (Sherco TVS) stands steady in fourth, J.Rod (Hero) in twelfth, CS Santosh (Hero) in fifteenth, Aravind KP (Sherco TVS) in 25th and Abdul Wahid Tanveer (Sherco) in 30th.
After a night of rest minus the mechanics (meaning no real rest – the riders will have to service their own machines) day 5 will take them through another marathon stage worth 206km.
