Monday marked the beginning of a new week and the second half of the Fenix Rally.

After two days in the dunes, competitors were treated to a more scenic route in Stage 4. That didn’t mean they had time to stop and enjoy the landscapes, of course, especially not when the stage was the longest at 512 kilometers.

The stage began by departing the bivouac in Douz before going west toward Matmata. It is a small town of Berbers, most of whom live in houses called troglodytes that are built within hills. Hotel Sidi Driss, a troglodyte-style hotel in Matmata, was used as the interior of the Lars homestead in Star Wars; the Fenix Rally had gone past the homestead’s exterior in Tozeur during Stage 2.

After leaving Matmata, the stage continued south through Kamour and Tataouine (the latter obviously the namesake of the Star Wars planet Tatooine) before heading north to the Ksar Ghilane oasis. Finally, the leg ended back in Douz.

As high as the urge to sightsee might be, that’s not a smart idea given the fast pistes and rocky plateaus. Even without the dunes to get stuck in, Stage 4 took its share of victims.

“It was a day of tire and belt destruction, from morning till evening, eight thousand RPM and a lot of speed, but also a lot of fun,” said Antanas Kanopkinas.

Magdalena Zając suffered a mechanical failure, ruining a second-place run in her class.

Juraj Varga suffered a pair of flats while leading SSV, forcing him to race conservatively the rest of the way since he ran out of spare tires. Fortunately for the former Quad rider, he won his class anyway by six minutes over Edwin Opstelten.

Edvard Sokolovskij won in bike as he continues to chase down Dương Nguyễn-Khoa for the overall.

The electronic roadbook continued to see malfunctions. Gaëtan Martinez and Kanopkinas’ roadbooks stopped working in the closing 100 kilometers, so they had to stop and wait for others to pass by to know where to go.

Stage 4 winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
Car Open	229	Agostino Rizzardi	CountrysideWays	5:29:55
Car Limited	221	Abdul el Karim Ben Hassan	Tunis Automobile Club	6:16:56
SSV	422	Juraj Varga	Varga Motorsport Team	5:58:41
Truck	504	Philippe Roman	Roman	6:23:29
Enduro	91	Edvard Sokolovskij	AG Dakar School	5:54:50
ATV	10	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	6:30:16

Featured image credit: RBI Media