Dakar 2017, Stage 4: Santosh recovers, TVS Sherco's Metge makes progress

After his penalty in Stage 3, Santosh was on a recovery ride in the fourth stage across the Bolivian border from Jujuy to Tupiza, with the timed section of 416km.

The sole remaining Indian made progress all through the stage to end up 64th in the rankings, while was 77th overall, over four hours behind new leader Pablo Quintanilla in Husqvarna.

Meanwhile, teammate Joaquim Rodrigues started the day slowly and hovered around the Top 30 mark in the stage all day through the various way points.

After applying penalties to other riders, the Portuguese was 12th in the stage and the overall standings, 49m50s behind Quintanilla.

Over at TVS Sherco, after Aravind KP's untimely retirement, while Joan Pedrero had a tough day, teammate Metge made steady progress in the stage.

The experienced Spanish rider was only 63rd in the stage after losing a chunk of places at the final way point and was subsequently handed a 15 minutes penalty.

As a result, Pedrero dropped to 31st in the overall rankings. Whereas, Metge finished 39th in the stage and 54th overall, recovering well from his Stage 1 issues.