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Safari 2011 – Leg 4
27.9.11 – Safari Leg 4
Sep 28th
Leg 4 is done and dusted, and with three days of the 2011 Safari remaining GHR rider Todd Smith still has a solid hold on the lead.
The day comprised three special stages.
The 85.31km SS7 Lehmann Loop ventured eastwards after traversing technical mining roads, and a 2.17km road section brought the riders to the start of SS8 Cosmo. The middle of this 129.55km selective featured a fast section of bends with ruts and multiple erosion warnings. Another short road section lead to the final SS9 Great Victoria stage was a 241.21km and varied mix of station tracks, mine roads, sand dunes, rock sections and boggy areas.
Rider comments:
Todd Smith: “Another good day up front. Shane Diener pulled some time on me today I think. We definitely did some revving today! You be flat out for 10ks straight, then turn and have the same again and again. The leading three remained fairly close to the finish, but it feels good to be where I want to be.”
Jacob Smith: “I really couldn’t have done that second stage any quicker today. I was picking the corners early and just nailing them all the way round. Today was seriously fun – the sections with the bends just had incredible grip because of the rains recently. Dead set, if riders didn’t enjoy today they really shouldn’t be riding a bike. It’s Todd’s race to lose now but we’re going to keep working together and we’ll see how Shane goes with some pressure from us behind while he’s leading.”
Overall top 5 at end of Leg 4:
1st – #2 Todd Smith – 17:05:57
2nd – #6 Jacob Smith – 17:15:50
3rd – #31 Shane Diener – 17:16:19
4th – #56 Rod Faggotter – 17:35:19
5th – #5 Cyril Despres – 18:06:14
Other GHR riders:
9th #27 David Geeves – 19:58:56
15th – #25 Don Lark – 21:13:20
17th – #35 Charlie Ball – 21:30:08
32nd – #40 Stuart Bowen – 24:58:59
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