The opening day here in South Africa and this should provide a pretty good indication of how the 4 days are going to go. Time for the big guns to lay down their mark!
Quite a few riders trying to get away but we're 30km into the stage and nothing has managed to settle at the front of the race yet with the Peloton weary of the numbers and make-up of the potential escapees.
It takes a while but after 50km of racing we finally have a breakaway of 4 riders who have a 2'24 gap with 140km of riding still to go. Morales Ortega Kaislavuo Tratnik Atkins
110km and the breakaway are 3'24 clear now. Their gap peaked at 3'45 and is now slowly coming down.
It's a comfortable win for Kaislavuo at the first of 2 intermediate sprints. 85km to go and the gap still 3'13.
It's very close at the KOM 5km later but Tratnik just takes it and will wear the KOM jersey tomorrow.
Tratnik is best positioned and has the acceleration to win the 2nd intermediate sprint. 37km to the line and the gap now down to 1'28.
Just over 20km to go and the gap is still 1'05 but Minions, Jura, Binance and Lierse have really upped the pace now.
A particularly high pace from the Minions in the last few kilometres ensures that the catch is made with 8.5km to go.
4km to the line and everyone at the front is either a lead-out or a main sprinter so it's looking like it's going to be pretty chaotic.
2.5km and Binance has quite a few riders on the front but no real train for Kennaugh. Vesely on the right-hand side has Hodeg in front of him and Lindeman dragging them both forward. Otherwise, it's mostly individuals.
Almost under the kite and Vesely still has Hodeg in front of him. The train next to them is Noppe leading out Kennaugh who is closely followed by Swift and Aberasturi.
The sprint is underway with 700m to go as Vesely, Kennaugh and Swift look best placed. Plenty of riders coming from deep behind them though!
100m to go and a winner is definitely not decided yet. Swift is in the lead but only just.
And he holds on! Swift with the perfect start here in South Africa as he wins the opener. Kennaugh makes it a Brexit Top 2 as he takes 2nd. Aberasturi with a great ride as he completes the podium. Vesely can't quite reward his team for their work as he is 4th while Enger came from deep for 5th.
On the right side of the road it was a close run thing for the rest of the Top 10. Demare just beat his countryman, Coquard, for 6th. Liu came in 8th. It's another Frenchman in Lavoine who is 9th while Bonifazio rounds out the Top 10.
A great start here for Swift whose team didn't really do much today but you'd imagine that there will be a bit more asked of them tomorrow.
Tratnik is the KOM leader. Morales Ortega leads the U25s by 2 seconds. Carrefour - ESPN lead the Teams but every team is equal on time.
SAA Tour d'Afrique 
