We call Stage Four The Long One for obvious reasons. It may not seem long compared to some monster stages (like our 91km Desert beast) but this is day four of an arctic race. The cumulative damage of having run more than three marathons in blisteringly cold conditions, trudging through soft snow and stumbling on snowshoes across uneven frozen lakes, is considerable and the runners carry that all into the Stage Four.

This is a tough crowd though and the weather has gone their way throughout the event. Of the runners who started yesterday, only Mal Smith was forced to retire. It takes an awful lot to stop Mal, who has a wealth of cold racing experience, and this is testament to just how hard this race is.

We had a change at the front of the pack as Belgian runner Alex De Spiegeleer dug a spare set of legs out of his kit bag and took the stage win. He did enough in fact to move him up to 2nd in the overall standings. He’d need to make up over an hour during Stage Five’s 15km in order to win the race however.

Below you’ll find the results for Stage Four.