Adam Yates expressed his sympathy for Julian Alaphilippe after taking the yellow jersey off him due to a costly illegal feed on stage five of the Tour de France.
Alaphilippe was given a 20-second time penalty for taking a water bottle in the final 20 kilometres of the 183 km stage from Gap to Privas, which was won by Wout van Aert on Wednesday.
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Yates was on the Mitchelton-Scott team bus when he discovered he had become the new race leader, with Deceuninck-QuickStep's Alaphilippe 16 seconds adrift of the Brit after his hopes of being the first French winner of the race since 1985 took a big blow.
A surprised Yates, who has an advantage of three seconds over Primoz Roglic, would have preferred to be donning yellow in different circumstances.
No breakaway on the 5th stage but a nervous final stretch saw @WoutvanAert win a 2nd @letour stage.
— Tour de France; (@LeTour) September 2, 2020
The Yellow Jersey passes from Julian Alaphilippe to @AdamYates7
Get the sound on and enjoy the stage 5 highlights!#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/vdbGJKqKyj
The Englishman said: "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."
He added: "I wanted to try something tomorrow, but I guess I'll wear the jersey tomorrow now, continue as normal and try and win stages.
"I just asked him [Alaphilippe] what happened because I only found out two minutes ago what happened. He just told me he took a feed or a bottle in the last 20 kilometres.
"I was already on the 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 [to be presented with the yellow jersey]."
