diff --git a/Lib/pathlib.py b/Lib/pathlib.py
index ed31ddb..fce2fd5 100644
--- a/Lib/pathlib.py
+++ b/Lib/pathlib.py
@@ -265,19 +265,18 @@ class _PosixFlavour(_Flavour):
     is_supported = (os.name != 'nt')
 
     def splitroot(self, part, sep=sep):
-        if part and part[0] == sep:
-            stripped_part = part.lstrip(sep)
-            # According to POSIX path resolution:
-            # http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap04.html#tag_04_11
-            # "A pathname that begins with two successive slashes may be
-            # interpreted in an implementation-defined manner, although more
-            # than two leading slashes shall be treated as a single slash".
-            if len(part) - len(stripped_part) == 2:
-                return '', sep * 2, stripped_part
-            else:
-                return '', sep, stripped_part
-        else:
+        stripped_part = part.lstrip(sep)
+        # According to POSIX path resolution:
+        # http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap04.html#tag_04_11
+        # "A pathname that begins with two successive slashes may be
+        # interpreted in an implementation-defined manner, although more
+        # than two leading slashes shall be treated as a single slash".
+        if len(part) - len(stripped_part) == 0:
             return '', '', part
+        elif len(part) - len(stripped_part) == 2:
+            return '', sep * 2, stripped_part
+        else:
+            return '', sep, stripped_part
 
     def casefold(self, s):
         return s