RENAISSANCE IN YELLOW

After struggling at the Tour in recent years Adam Yates took advantage of a twist of fate in the first week to restate his Grand Tour credentials, writes Peter Cossins

- Peter Cossins

Of all the ways that a rider could choose to take the yellow jersey, benefitting from a time penalty imposed on the incumbent for a taking a bottle from a soigneur within a prohibited area is undoubtedly well down towards the bottom of the list. When, in the aftermath of the Tour’s fifth stage into Privas, news began to filter through that the race commissaires had handed a 20-second penalty to race leader Julian Alaphilippe, second-placed Adam Yates was already showered and waiting for the Mitchelton- Scott bus to head for the team hotel.

“I don’t think anyone wants to take the yellow jersey like this,” Yates said, after it had been confirmed he would be the ninth British rider to lead the Tour. “You want to do it by winning or taking time.”

Yates came to the Tour insistent that he was aiming for stage wins and wasn’t at all interested in the yellow jersey. The Lancastrian fell ill before the Critérium du Dauphiné and rode through that five-day event looking for form and was well out of contention.