Today, on the third stage of Paris-Nice, the riders will line up in their teams and race against the clock in Dampierre-en-Burly, north-central France.
The course is simple, a triangular 32.2km out-and-back, but it won't be a straightforward team time trial. No, this time there's a catch.
Despite competing in seven-man squads, the race organisers are only taking the times of the first rider across the line, rather than the fourth as is customary. All seven riders will then receive individual timings for the general classification.
“We want to avoid that one team with the majority of its riders is at the top of the rankings,” said race director François Lemarchand when unveiling the route earlier this year.
“It will be interesting to see what tactics the teams will use,” he added. “I can imagine a scenario where only two riders of a team enter the final kilometre, after which one then launches the sprint for the other.”
Speaking to Cycling Weekly last week, six-time British time trial champion Alex Dowsett said the format is “brilliant”.
“The most efficient way of doing the race will be to have your GC guy dropped off with 500m to go," he explained. "Maybe he has taken some turns, maybe he hasn't, that depends how strong he would be, and how much energy they want to save for days to come.”
"If you have Jonas Vingegaard, who's a weapon on a team time trial bike, then it would be useful for him to ride for the team. If you have a weaker time trialist, it makes sense to keep the GC rider protected until the end."
Below are the start times for each team. Lotto Dstny will begin proceedings at 13:57 GMT, with each squad then starting at three-minute intervals. Race leader Mads Pedersen’s Trek-Segafredo will be the last team down the ramp at 15:00 GMT.
For details on how to watch the action, visit our streaming guide here.
Start times (GMT)
13:57 - Lotto Dstny
14:00 - Israel-Premier Tech
14:03 - Bahrain Victorious
14:06 - Jayco AlUla
14:09 - Alpecin-Deceuninck
14:12 - Ineos Grenadiers
14:15 - Intermarché-Circus-Wanty
14:18 - Astana Qazaqstan
14:21 - Uno-X Pro Cycling
14:24 - AG2R Citröen
14:27 - Arkéa-Samsic
14:30 - Team DSM
14:33 - Bora-Hansgrohe
14:36 - UAE Team Emirates
14:39 - Groupama-FDJ
14:42 - Movistar
14:45 - TotalEnergies
14:48 - Jumbo-Visma
14:51 - Cofidis
14:54 - Soudal Quick-Step
14:57 - EF Education-EasyPost
15:00 - Trek-Segafredo
