It wasn’t how he dreamt it but Adam Yates is wearing yellow at the Tour De France.
The 28-year-old became the ninth Brit after Tom Simpson, Chris Boardman, Sean Yates, David Millar, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas to wear the iconic jersey.
Yates, born in Bury, took the lead after a surreal ending to Stage Five where home favourite Julian Alaphilippe was slapped with a 20-second time penalty.
YATES IN YELLOW!
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) September 2, 2020
Britain's Adam Yates takes #TDF2020 leader's jersey after Julian Alaphilippe was sanctioned with a time penalty. pic.twitter.com/ThxEMALzkc
The Frenchman took a drink of water within 20km of the stage finish, forbidden under UCI rules.
Yates, riding for Australian team Mitchelton-Scott, was four seconds down on Alaphilippe ahead of the Gap-Privas stage and leapt into a three-second lead after the penalty.
#TDF2020
— Mitchelton-SCOTT (@MitcheltonSCOTT) September 2, 2020
“I don’t think any rider would want to take yellow under these circumstances, I’d prefer to take it with my legs rather than the result of a time penalty.
“I didn’t even find out until I was in the bus and showered. I feel bad for him.” pic.twitter.com/zZORbOfvyB
“It was a calm day, there was no breakaway and we just cruised for 100km,” said Yates.
“It’s not the way I imagined taking the jersey – I wasn’t even sure what happened to Julian. "I was already on bus for a long time, I'd already had a shower and was ready to go home. But the director came up to me and told me I had to come up here for the ceremony.
“No-one wants to take the jersey like this, but I’ll be wearing it tomorrow.
“I was looking to take the jersey anyway tomorrow, so the mentality will be the same, to try and win the stage.”
Second place in Sunday’s stage – ahead of Tour favourite Primoz Roglic – put Yates in pole position to take advantage of the time penalty drama.
Yates has made known his intentions to challenge for stage wins rather than progress in the general classification, having suffered with a debilitating illness in the lead-up to the race.
He is taking part in his fifth Tour, having finished fourth in 2016.