YELLOW JERSEY FOR YATES AFTER LEADER PENALISED
ADAM YATES became the ninth Briton to wear the Tour de France’s yellow jersey after Julian Alaphilippe was hit with a time penalty at the end of stage five. Wout van Aert won the 183km stage from Gap to Privas in a sprint finish but the drama came after the race. Commissaires took 20 seconds off Alaphilippe for taking a water bottle from his team’s support staff inside the final 20km which is against the rules. The decision saw Mitchelton-Scott’s
Yates, who began the day four seconds down, elevated to race leader. Yates said: ‘It’s not the way I imagined taking the jersey. I’m not sure what happened to Julian. If I’m honest I don’t think anyone wants to take a jersey like this but I guess we’ll wear it tomorrow.’ There was also an Irishman in green as Sam Bennett, beaten in the sprint by Van Aert, did enough to move clear of three-time world champion Peter Sagan in the points classification. Bennett, Alaphilippe’s Deceuninck-Quick-Step team-mate, became the first Irishman to wear green since Sean Kelly won the points classification for the fourth and final time in 1989.