EF Education-Easy Post's Magnus Cort Nielsen moved to the top of the overall standings of Paris-Nice on Tuesday, despite Jumbo-Visma winning the team time trial on Stage 3 in central France.

Dane Cort Nielsen, 30, holds a one-second advantage over Jumbo's Belgian Nathan van Hooydonck in second place and three seconds over Jayco Alula's Australian Michael Matthews in third.

Tour de France champion and Cort Nielsen's compatriot Jonas Vingegaard is in fifth spot with UAE Team Emirates' two-time Grand Boucle winner Tadej Pogacar in 10th.

The day marked a change in the team time trial format, with the clock stopping as the first rider crossed the line, rather than the fourth or fifth.

After a 32.2km team trial around the small village of Dampierre-en-Burly, to the south of Orleans, Jumbo pipped Cort Nielsen's outfit by one second in a race considered as a mini Tour de France.

Matthews' Jayco Alula was third, four seconds behind in cloudy conditions accompanying the riders on the 'Race to the Sun,' which ends Sunday on the Cote d'Azur in Nice.

Wednesday's fourth stage is a 165km ride south from Saint-Armand-Montrond to La Loge des Gardes, passing through Vichy, the French State capital between 1940-1944.