Wout van Aert, winner last month of Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, has secured Jumbo-Visma’s second successive stage win of this year’s Tour de France, taking Stage 5 in Privas this afternoon as he proved too strong for his rivals in the sprint – and Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates is in the yellow jersey after Julian Alaphilippe, leading by 4 seconds overall this morning, was docked 20 seconds for taking a water bottle inside the last 20km, which is against the rules.
It was a performance from van Aert that underlined the 25-year-old Belgian’s versatility after he put in a big turn yesterday on the final climb to help team leader and overall favourite Primoz Roglic win at Orcierres-Merlette and move to third on GC.
Team Sunweb’s Cees Bols finished second in the uphill sprint today, with Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Sam Bennett third following a strange stage that had been expected to end in a sprint finish, but unusually saw no break form.
Bennett’s team mate Julian Alaphilippe appeared to have remained in the race leader’s yellow jersey following the 183kn stage from Gap, ahead of a summit finish on Mont Aigoual tomorrow, until it was announced he had been given that time penalty.
Often, it’s what appear to be the most innocuous stages of the Tour de France that produce the biggest talking points afterwards, a rule proved today when there was not even a breakaway for commentators to discuss and viewers to follow, although the prospect of the wind splitting the field in the final few kilometres did liven things up briefly.
The big talking point though is the change of race leadership, and that was not the only jersey to change hands today; Deceunick-Quick Step may have lost the yellow one, but Bennett has taken the green one, assuming the leadership of the points classification from Bora-Hansgrohe’s Peter Sagan, who is aiming to win it for a record eighth time.
It takes a lot of bottle to penalise the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, but that’s exactly what happened to Julian Alaphilippe today when he took an illegal feed within the final 20km of today’s stage. Will this setback prevent him from finishing in yellow in Paris? pic.twitter.com/eQkJeSqj7j
— GlobalCyclingNetwork (@gcntweet) September 2, 2020
Reaction
New race leader Adam Yates
“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
— Mitchelton-SCOTT (@MitcheltonSCOTT) September 2, 2020
Sam Bennett, points classification leader
It was a really hectic sprint, and to be honest, at three kilometres to go I felt that I didn’t have the legs to sprint anymore.
The final was really difficult, I could feel that as we were approaching the line. I was focused today on taking the green jersey and having it and following in the footsteps of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche feels amazing. I am delighted and proud with it and want to enjoy this moment and continue fighting for green.
Stage winner Wout van Aert
This is a very nice win. I am very grateful to the team for giving me the chance to go for it today. I am more than happy that I can reward their confidence with this stage win. I only got one chance and I took it. This is really awesome.
It was a fairly easy stage, but the finish was still quite difficult. Because there was no breakaway during the stage and the fact that the pace was not too high, a lot of riders were still fresh.
Because of the fast last hour and the wind, it got quite hectic in the end. I knew the stage was perfect for me. It was very important to choose position. I was positioned really well in the lead-out of Team Sunweb.
I started my sprint when Bol accelerated. It was still very tight, but a few centimetres is enough. I now have my victory, so from tomorrow I will work for Primoz and Tom again. I will do so with great pleasure and happiness.
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12 thoughts on “Adam Yates leads Tour de France as Julian Alaphilippe penalised, Wout van Aert takes stage”
Yates now in yellow after JA
Yates now in yellow after JA picked up a time penalty.
bobbinogs wrote:
A tactical penalty if ever I’ve seen one, he didn’t make a fuss after the finish and his DS Tom Steels looks a bit “too happy” to say the least… https://youtu.be/fkDmnAhJY-Q
I agree. Looking at the video
I agree. Looking at the video, one official feed person for DQS within the 20km does seem planned.
OK, so I’m not up on race
OK, so I’m not up on race tactics and strategy. In my innocence and naivety I kind of assumed that winning was an, er, advantage in a race. How is it more advantageous to bin a win?
DQS have been on the front
DQS have been on the front for the last few days – it’s their ‘duty’ to defend the jersey. But at the moment all that’s doing is allowing other teams to mark DQS and Alaphilippe as they toil away. Mitchelton-Scott will probably be on the front today. De Clercq and Cavagna can have a rest. Alaphilippe can also rest and plan an ambush or two later.
Any other day, they might
Any other day, they might have hoped a breakaway or two to lose time. But as pretty much the whole peloton crossed at the same time, he could have lost 40 secs or more if he dropped off the back. This way they control the time loss and as mentioned above, lets them sit an save energy. As with anything tactical, it is a gamble and if he loses out by 15-20 secs in the overall then it would have backfired.
So winning is an advantage,
So winning is an advantage, but you don’t win the tour until you cross the line in Paris (If we get that far). This year DQS don’t have the team to defend the jersey day on day through the mountains, so losing it on an easy stage to a “mistake” like yesterday was perfect. It means all their riders can take a breather, they can help Bennett get some green jersey sprint points, but not have to all sit on the front all day. Alaphilippe can shelter in the bunch and save all his energy for the climbs.
Look at today, We’ve got Mitchelton on the front, followed by Ineos, Jumbo and Movistar. DQS aren’t having to try
Is it a requirement of the
Is it a requirement of the yellow jersey that it be defended? You can’t take a back seat and ‘save energy’ as described whilst wearing it?
One of the unwritten rules of
One of the unwritten rules of the peloton, you are expected to do the work to show you are respecting the jersey properly, if you dont,then dont expect favours from them like not attacking you if you get a mechanical, soft pedalling whilst you stop for a pee that kind of thing
It does depend on the
It does depend on the situation though – if a weaker team holds the jersey (and isn’t expected to be fighting for it long term) it’s more accepted that they can lean on the real contenders’ teams to do the work; likewise if there are other teams that have other goals on the stage – on flatter stages it’s often considered reasonable for the team with the yellow jersey to leave it to teams with strong sprinters to work to bring the break back and set up a sprint.
Plonking someone with a
Plonking someone with a bottle at the side of the road inside the last 20km has got to be either cock-up or conspiracy. Given the absence of blue air, I’m going for the latter. Still, rules are rules – use them as you see fit.
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183 kilonewtons? Blimey. And we all thought the peleton were taking it easy for the day.