It's the opening stage here in Burkina Faso and it's an open stage in terms of how it may be decided.
The favourites here are those cobble riders who can sprint but a late attack may be just as successful on a stage like this.
It's dry, it's hot and we are underway!
Plenty of riders on the attack early on to try get themselves into today's breakaway.
Still 112km remaining and only a few kilometres into this one but we have a 17 rider breakaway with a gap of 2'31. There are some strong riders in here who will be eyeing up the stage win.
Taubel
Shapira
Schlechter
Iino
Pibernik
Ariesen
Van Den Bossche
Marcos
Stockli
Garibian
Kmieliauskas
Talacka
Van Rensburg
Nzahashwanayo
Broxham
Turnbull, Culey
Ariesen wins the first of 2 intermediate sprints ahead of Talacka and Culey.
Poor positioning from the better riders in the break means Culey wins it with Talacka 2nd and Pubernik 3rd. The gap is 1'40 with 54km to go.
Some serious splits in the Peloton as 52 riders are in the front group and they've upped the pace with 45km to go and the gap is only just over a minute.
The Peloton make the catch with 20km to go as they've entered a 17.5km cobbled section. The front group is only 80 riders at this point.
A high pace in this cobbled sector by numerous strong riders has ripped apart the Peloton. With 12km remaining, there is a front group of 23 riders.
8km now to go and Ariesen seems to have reserved his energy from the break as he ups the pace and has a 30 second gap to a group of 14.
In this group we have the following, in this order:
Merlier
Schlechter
Fenn
Chatarunga
Manakov
Lampaert
Dakteris
Matthews
Marcos
Boeckmans
Scully
Major
Edmondson
Taubel
Ariesen is absolutely flying! He has a gap of 1'16 with 5km to go.
It's a huge stage win for Tim Ariesen! A massive step towards the GC from the Dutchman.
15 riders are 2.5km from the finish. They are split into groups of 9 and 6 riders respectively. Not the fastest pace being set by anyone.
A clear 2nd for Dakteris ahead of his team mate Manakov.
Schlechter is 4th with another Bianchi rider in Chatarunga 5th, Lampaert 6th and Matthews 7th.
Pre-race favourite Fenn is 8th with Merlier 9th.
Shortly after, it's Silva 10th finishing in a small group with Scully, Major and Edmondson.
All others lose in excess of 4 minutes.
2'39 is the lead for Ariesen in the GC. A great buffer going into the next 2 days. A time gap of 2'29 was given from 2nd to 15th with the gap in the GC just under 3 minutes.
Ariesen leads the Points by 11 to Dakteris. Giulietti and Perez are level in the U25s. Bianchi, rather unsurprisingly, lead the Teams.
Tour du Faso - Stage 1 Report 
