Modification at Stage 4: Benavides wins the fourth stage and Barreda still Merzouga Rally leader with one day left

The overall balance of this marathon stage is not bad. Yesterday I opened the track all the way and nobody was able to reach me physically. I had to navigate alone so that was good. Today I started from behind, caught the riders in front and opened the track for half the stage until the end.

This second part of the marathon stage was quite complicated, with sand and dunes and even rocks, with some parts like a trial ride, where we were forced to push the bike. It was very tough physically. I continued with a fairly calm pace and toward the end there was a complicated part of navigation where a lot of the riders in front couldn’t locate. I kept up a good pace and I hope to keep it in the final stage tomorrow. The team is very focused and determined to get the best possible result.

It was a day in which we tried to control the race, but in the end it was more complicated than usual. We had difficulty finding a waypoint seven km from the finish line. We were there, at the point, but it just didn’t seem to add up and we ended up spending forty minutes to find it. Other riders arrived and in the end we found the position. We believe there was an error in the roadbook note. We were able to save the day despite losing some time and we’ll have to see what happens in the end. Tomorrow is the final day.

The second day of the marathon went pretty well. I like this terrain a lot more than the sand dunes, the rocky stuff is definitely better than the dunes. I felt good today and rode well. I caught the rest from the speed and the navigation. I made less mistakes today and that paid off very well. I’m looking forward to tomorrow which is a mass start. I’m happy to be here and ready for the final day.

It was a hard day for me. I had a hard time concentrating. I made a mistake in the roadbook and I got lost, losing a lot of time. I struggled to find the pace again, but I was finally able to recover a little, taking advantage of the navigation mistake that everyone else made. I think I can improve, we have to learn from both the good days and the bad days like today even though I did climb a position in the general.