Team HRC riders lead the way in Desafio Ruta 40

Stage 4: Belén to Chilecito - Total stage: 586.73km - Special stage: 192.32km

Team HRC riders Helder Rodrigues and Javier Pizzolito hold the top two places in the overall standings after today’s fourth stage of the Desafio Ruta 40 rally in Argentina.

After an early start this morning, with temperatures hovering just above freezing, Rodrigues was fifth fastest after a 586km ride, with a 192km special stage, from Belén to Chilecito. His team mate, Pizzolito, who won yesterday’s third stage, finished ninth, 12m50s behind today’s stage winner Marc Coma.

Pizzolito opened the stage at 06.10 this morning, which was conducted in the Fiambalà area of Argentina and contained some typical Dakar scenery of spectacular sand dunes, and the Argentinian rider made some small navigational errors which affected his time.

But it is the consistency of Rodrigues, together with the performance of his Honda CRF450 Rally, that has put him at the top of the overall leader board, just 1m16s ahead of his Team HRC team-mate.

However, the results were overshadowed by the announcement that Argentinian rider, Nicolás Rojas, had succumbed to injuries sustained when he crashed heavily in today’s stage. The thoughts of Team HRC are with his family and friends in this difficult time.

Helder Rodrigues #3 - 5th
"What a difficult day! It was really easy to make a mistake in navigation and I got lost with a few other riders today, but we got back on the right track in the end. After these problems, I'm really happy with the result today. I am leading now and I think Javier and I can make a good race in tomorrow's long stage. The bike is feeling great and the team is working really well together."

Javier Pizzolito #7 - 9th
"It was difficult for me to open today's stage because it required a lot of navigation, but I am happy with my performance. I injured my hand in the crash yesterday and at the end of today, whe n I was tired, it started to swell up and I was in some pain, but I managed to reach the end. I am also happy that Helder is leading overall and that I am quite close to him because tomorrow will be an important stage. "

Special Stage 4 results:
1 Marc Coma (KTM)
2 Kurt Caselli (KTM) +1m50s
3 David Casteu (Yamaha) +3m36s
4 Claudio Rodrigues (Honda) +4m38s
5 Helder Rodrigues (Team HRC) +5m25s
6 Pablo Rodrigues (Honda) +7m16s
7 Francisco Lopez (KTM) 9m44s
8 F J Prohens (Honda) 9m55s
9 Javier Pizzolito (Team HRC)12m50s

Overall standings:
1 Rodrigues
2 Pizzolito +1m16s
3 Caselli +1m39s
4 Lopez +2m11s
5 Coma +3m17s
6 Casteu +4m33s
7 Goncalves +12m28s