The Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), unhappy hero of the last Tour de France where he lost the yellow jersey during the penultimate stage, this time had a smile after the time trial in the streets of Gien .
Admittedly, he does not win the third stage of Paris-Nice but he climbs to third place in the general classification and reinforces his status as number one favorite for the final victory this Sunday in Nice.
Roglic finished in third place in this Tuesday's stage, six seconds behind the surprising winner, the Swiss Stefan Bissegger (Education First).
The vice-world champion in 2019 was just ... eight tenths of a second ahead of Frenchman Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck - Quick-Step).
"It's really hard to miss the victory for so little", plague Cavagna.
Thanks to this thin gap, Bissegger seized the yellow leader's jersey just ahead of Cavagna and Roglic.
But it was really the latter who took a first psychological advantage over the rest of the favorites for the final victory.
Roglic, for his first race of the season, wanted to reassure himself about his state of form.
It is done.