At the Tour de France, small errors and innocuous decisions can easily morph into mini disasters or unexpected triumphs, and so it was at the Stage 1 individual time trial in Dusseldorf, Germany on Saturday.
All it took was some persistent rain to narrow the margins of error enough to split the race wide open after just one day.
With the stage winner and three more riders in the top 10, Team Sky's first-day dominance will do nothing to quiet the rumblings of controversy that have dogged them all year. Super-domestique Geraint Thomas grabbing the first yellow jersey made the headlines, but it was what some of the big contenders lost that will make a difference.
Nairo Quintana, leader of Team Movistar, was the big loser when Alejandro Valverde, his powerful lieutenant (and a contender in his own right), overcooked a slippery left-hander and slid hard into the barriers.
A suspected lower leg fracture ended the Spaniard's Tour minutes after it had begun, instantly weakening Quintana's hand in the mountains even though the big climbs are still more than a week away.
Quintana also lost big on the timesheet, finishing 36 seconds adrift of defending champion Chris Froome. The Team Sky leader blitzed his general classification rivals by finishing sixth, 12 seconds off yellow jersey pace.
Quintana, however, found himself in good company.
Pre-race favourite Richie Porte (BMC Racing) also took a body shot from Froome, losing 35 seconds to the three-time champion, as did FDJ's Thibault Pinot (38 seconds), Team Astana's Fabio Aru (40 seconds), and Trek-Segafredo's Alberto Contador (42 seconds).
That's a lot of time to be changing hands after riding just 14km of the Tour de France.
In comparison, for those who stayed upright, finishing without mishap started to feel like a not-so-minor victory. Tour de France rookie Jaco Venter from Team Dimension Data certainly saw it that way.
"I'm very happy to finish my first stage of the Tour de France in one piece," he said. "There was a massive crowd and it was slippery out there but I made it through safely."
Stage winner Thomas, who covered the course at an average speed of 52.5km/h, drew a more sanguine conclusion.
"It wasn't too slippery if you didn't go too fast. I took most of the corners within myself, and paced it well," he said in his first TV interview as the leader of the Tour.
Team Sky may well keep the maillot jaune for a day or two, but with a fistful of sprint-friendly stages coming up, the fast men will have a target firmly affixed to Thomas' back.
This year's Tour offers time bonuses for the first three finishers (10 seconds, six seconds and four seconds, respectively) which means that a couple of stage wins would close the gap to the yellow jersey very nicely indeed.
Best placed to take advantage of such headlong mathematical chances are Didata's Edvald Boasson Hagen, the newly crowned time trial champion of Norway, and Marcel Kittel, the Quick-Step Floors sprinter who is heavily backed to make an impression in the coming days. Both are only 16 seconds off the race lead, nestled just inside the top ten of the GC after Stage 1.
South Africa's Daryl Impey (Orica-Scott) also had a strong ride on Saturday, finishing 14th, 19 seconds down. The next best South Africans were Didata's Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg and Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates). Along with Ethiopia's Tsgabu Grmay (Bahrain-Merida), all three are grouped at just over a minute back.
Up next on Sunday is a gently undulating 203km run from Dusseldorf through to Liege in Belgium. The roads familiar from the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic will be an opportunity for Froome's GC rivals to lick their wounds, but for the sprint teams, it's the first of a few high-stakes chances to steal some thunder.
After spending most of the season recovering from glandular fever, it will be an early opportunity for Didata sprinter Mark Cavendish to show and go, but apart from a host of other danger men, the big names of Kittel, Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and irrepressible world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) all stand in his way.
Racing starts at 12:30pm, and like all stages of the 2017 Tour de France, will be broadcast live from the gun.