BURY star Adam Yates inherited the yellow jersey of the Tour de France after Julian Alaphilippe was hit with a time penalty at the end of a stage five which was won by Wout van Aert in Privas.

Van Aert won the 183km stage from Gap in a sprint finish but the drama came after the race was over, when commissaires took 20 seconds off Alaphilippe for an illegal feed inside the final 20 kilometres.

The decision saw Mitchelton-Scott’s Yates, who began the day four seconds down, elevated into the race lead as he became the ninth Briton in history to don the yellow jersey.

Yates follows Tom Simpson, Sean Yates (no relation), Chris Boardman, David Millar, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas.

He said: “It’s not the way I imagined taking the jersey. I’m not even sure what happened to Julian – I heard he got a time penalty for taking a feed late.

"If I’m honest I don’t think anyone wants to take a jersey like this but I guess we’ll wear it tomorrow.

“Tomorrow I was looking to try to take the jersey anyway so we’ll go in with the same tactics, try and win the stage and see what happens.”

The 28-year-old former Bury Clarion man, who will join Team Ineos next season, came to the Tour insisting he would focus only on stage wins after an illness hurt his preparations to have another tilt at the general classification.

His twin brother Simon is not taking part in this year’s race as he focuses on the Giro d’Italia.