Adam Yates says penalty 'is not how you want to take yellow jersey'

A stunned Adam Yates moved into the overall lead in the 2020 Tour de France after Julian Alaphilippe, of Deceuncink-Quick-Step, was penalised 20 seconds for taking an illegal feed in the closing kilometres of the fifth stage, from Gap to Privas.

Alaphilippe was shown on TV images taking a drinks bottle from a team helper 17km from the finish, which is against International Cycling Union rules and subject to a 20sec time penalty. Yates, riding for Mitchelton-Scott, who had been in second place overall, four seconds behind Alaphilippe, now leads by three seconds from the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, of Jumbo-Visma.

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“I don’t think any rider would want to take the jersey like this,” said the 28-year-old from Bury, before confirming that he would wear the maillot jaune in Thursday’s mountainous sixth stage to Mont Aigoual.

“I just asked him [Alaphilippe] what happened,” Yates said. “He told me he took a feed or a bottle in the last 20k. Like I said before, this is not how you want to take the jersey. We’ll have to wear the jersey tomorrow and take it day by day.”

On a pedestrian transitional stage from the Alps to the Ardèche that saw very little meaningful action, Alaphilippe’s lead had not been under threat. “Apparently I took a feed in a nonauthorised zone,” said the Frenchman, who wore the yellow jersey for 14 days in 2019. “That’s a 20-second penalty so it’s Yates in the yellow jersey, normally. If that’s the case, that’s how it goes. It’s the decision of the jury so I can’t do anything about it.”

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He added: “It was a very long and very boring stage, with a very nervous finale. I had to stay concentrated to defend the jersey and try and win the stage with [teammate] Sam Bennett, who’s in the green jersey, which is good news. But if that’s how it is, then no worries, tomorrow I’ll pick myself back up and we won’t talk about it any more.”

Yates was about to head to his team’s hotel when he heard the news. “I got back to the bus, had a shower and then they called my directeur sportif to send me back,” he said. He will now wear the yellow jersey on Thursday, starting in Le Teil and riding south-west into the Cevennes, to Mont Aigoual, the high point of the Gard département. “I’ll try something tomorrow,” he said, before insisting: “A stage win interests me more than the general classification.”