Primoš Roglic said he was unsure of his form going into Paris-Nice, and that was evident as he climbed the second half of the opening stage with just two other riders.

The fact that those two riders were his teammates spoke volumes about Jumbo Visma's overall strength, leading to an incredible 1-2-3 at the finish line.

The crown of the day went to Christophe Laporte, the least popular of the trio, who took the win and the yellow jersey, but in terms of overall title contention, Roglic dealt his rivals a major blow.

In a stage that many expected to be a group sprint, he opened up a gap of about half a second on his overall class rivals.

"I still wasn't confident in my condition or my legs, but in the end I was in this situation with strong riders. I was able to keep pace with them," Roglic said at the finish.

Jumbo Visma's attack began after the first of two climbs on the Category 3 Côte de Bois-Bois-Robert (1.2 km, 6%) passed quietly. But as they crossed the descent and the finish line, they ignited the race as the group was stretched to the limit by crosswinds and twisting roads.

The group, which included Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) and Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), had already pulled away at the base of the climb. Nathan Van Hooydonk kept the pressure on, and Laporte blew the group away with a huge acceleration.

Only Roglic was able to chase with teammate Wout Van Aert. Quick-Step AlfaVinyl's Zdenek Stival was there at first, but had to give way, and the Jumbo-Visma trio cleared at the front, settling into a three-man mini-team time trial.

With all the sprinters down and most of the teams short on numbers, there was no organized chase in the pack that emerged behind, and the trio entered the last kilometer with a 20 second lead. And the only question was who would be named the winner. Despite the prospect of bonus seconds (10-6-4 for the top three), Roglic was happy to see the little-noticed Domestique as the winner.

"I really enjoyed it. It's great that Christophe got the yellow jersey," said Roglic.

Roglic can afford to forget these four seconds. His gift to his teammates was an investment that will surely pay off down the road, and to outperform his rivals even slightly was more than he could have hoped for.

The Slovenian is now in second place overall, 25 seconds behind fourth-placed Pierre Latour (Total Energies). The hardest hit in this race was Max Schachmann, who stole the win from Roglic last year. Bora-Hansgrohe may replace Alexandre Vlasov as leader.

Elsewhere, Michael Stoller lost more than 6 minutes of time, and Groupama-FDJ will now play David Gaudoux's card alone.

Roglic, who had dominated last year's Paris-Nice race with three stage wins and third place in the time trial, hit the deck several times on the final day and everything came crashing down. However, it all came crashing down on the final day as he hit the deck multiple times. He will be aware that this golden start is only a start, but with only two days of racing before next Sunday, he will be very hard to beat.