Dakar Day 4: Fiambala to Copiapo

With 629 km on the menu for the 4th stage, the competitors will cross the Andes Mountains and the border between Argentina and Chile at an altitude of more than 4000 m, before heading towards the Atacama Desert to dispute a 203-km long special stage… All the competitors will be confronted with a short but technical timed section including a quick first part followed by more than 100 km of sand and dunes. This could lead to some big gaps amongst the professional riders. It will also be the last opportunity for most of the competitors to adjust their settings for sand before really getting to grips with the most arid desert in the world.

In order that the race remains as fair as possible, possibilities of adjustments based on the events of the previous day have been imagined.

Indeed, seeing that a great number of competitors will not have returned to the bivouac by night fall, and having to face the passage of the Andes Cordillera, the rally organization has decided to delay the start of tomorrow’s stage from 4:00 to 5:30 and set the finish of tomorrow’s special at CP3, reducing it of its last 40 kilometers.

The "public zone" planned at km 184,91 has therefore been removed.