Tour de France 2020: Julian Alaphilippe relinquishes yellow jersey to Adam Yates; Wout Van Aert wins stage four

Privas: Britain’s Adam Yates took the Tour de France’s yellow jersey on Wednesday as overnight leader Julian Alaphilippe was penalised for taking on provisions in the final 20km. Mitchelton-Scott’s Yates took advantage of Alaphilippe’s 20-second sanction for drinking water from a bottle at the 17km mark as Belgium’s Wout Van Aert won the fifth stage. “Nobody wants to take the jersey like this,” Yates said when he found out. “I was on the bus and were about to leave for the hotel when I got a call. I asked Julian and he told me he had a time fine,” said Yates. In the stage itself, the 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. In another change of jerseys Ireland’s Sam Bennett took 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 line-up on the roster, and are the chief challenger to the dominance of Team Ineos who have won seven of the last eight Tours. Jumbo leader Primoz Roglic won Tuesday’s stage testing the other overall contenders with his late kick and claiming the stage win atop the climb to an Alpine ski station.