Wout van Aert of Belgium and Team Jumbo-Visma celebrates winning Stage 5 of the Tour de France on Wednesday. Photo: VCG

 

Britain's Adam Yates reluctantly took the Tour de France's yellow jersey on Wednesday as overnight leader Julian Alaphilippe was penalized for taking on water in the final 20 kilometers, a decision which prompted the Frenchman's boss to claim "he did nothing wrong."

Mitchelton-Scott's Yates took advantage of Alaphilippe's 20-second sanction for receiving a water bottle at the 17-kilometer mark as Belgium's Wout van Aert won the fifth stage. 

Taking on supplies from team cars is not allowed in the final 20 kilometers for safety reasons, but riders can drink or eat what they already have.

"Nobody wants to take the jersey like this. I was on the bus and we were about to leave for the hotel when I got a call," Yates said.

"I'd already had my shower and everything, I asked Julian and he told me he had a time fine, but tomorrow I'll give it everything to defend the jersey and we'll see day by day."

Deceuninck-Quick Step's Alaphilippe, who wore the jersey for 14 days during last year's Tour, took the news on the chin.

"What can you do," said the former French soldier. "They decided to impose a 20-second penalty and it's their choice.

"There will be other days and other opportunities," he said.

Deceuninck-Quick Step team sporting director Tom Steels said there had been mitigating circumstances.

"It's a shame to lose the yellow jersey like this. We knew there was the 20-kilometer rule," he said.

"But today to be honest, the circumstances were special. It was the only place that we found to give him a bottle.

"Julian was very disappointed because he did nothing wrong, he did not gain any sporting advantage by drinking twice from his bottle."

In the stage itself, powerful Dutch outfit Jumbo-­Visma made it two stage wins in two days as Van Aert edged a tight bunch sprint on a narrow winding finish.

Van Aert won a windy stage on the 2019 Tour when many of the purist sprinters had been dropped, and was part of the team time-trial victory for his outfit.

"It was a sweet win," said Van Aert, who won both Milan-­San Remo and the Strade ­Bianche classics in Italy ahead of the Tour.

In another change of jerseys Ireland's Sam Bennett, who is on the same Deceuninck team as Alaphilippe, clinched the green sprint points shirt from seven-time winner Peter ­Sagan by finishing third.

Van Aert's Jumbo-Visma arrived at the Tour as the in-form team with the most powerful looking lineup in the Grand Boucle, and are the chief challengers to the dominance of Team Ineos who have won ­seven of the last eight Tours.