Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) came to the Tour de France looking for a stage win, but the race commissaire ruled that Julien Alaphilippe (Dečuninck-Quick Step), who had led since Sunday, was bidon from the roadside in the last 20 km. He was penalized for taking the bidon from the roadside in the last 20km and will take over the yellow jersey on stage 5.

Yates said he was in the team bus preparing to leave the finish area of the Tour de France when the shocking news broke that his presence was urgently needed on the winner's podium.

Curiously, the Briton was already the "de facto leader" of the 2016 Tour de France after Chris Froome crashed near the top of Mont Ventoux.

This time, the change in classification works in Yates' favor, and he will start Thursday's sixth stage as Britain's first Tour leader since Geraint Thomas won the race outright in 2018.

"I don't think anyone wants to be ranked like this. You want to win or take time or something like that," Yates said a few minutes after taking the lead for the first time in Grand Tour history. But this is the reality."

"I took a shower in the bus and waited for everyone else to finish showering.

"But someone called the director and told me there might be a yellow. But when I asked Julian, he said he got a time penalty for taking the feed. I don't know what happened, but that's what happened to us."

Asked if he would wear the yellow jersey given the strange circumstances of taking the lead, Yates replied, "Yes, probably. I'm pretty sure I'll get fined if I don't, so I'll have to."

Mitchelton Scott (then Orica-GreenEdge) last wore the yellow jersey at the Tour in 2013, when Daryl Impey and Simon Gerrans wore it during the first week of racing.

In the long run, Yates said that regardless of the jersey on his back, his plans for the rest of the Tour remain unchanged. He will be looking for a stage win in France. Yates said, "But the pace was very fast, and it wasn't that hard of a stage." Yates launched an attack on the second stage with Alaphilippe and Mark Hirschi (Team Sunweb), but settled for third place.

A summit finish in Mont-Aigual on Thursday may give the Bree native a chance.

"Tomorrow is obviously hard and, as I said before, I want to be aggressive and get involved in the stages and try to win. 'Just because I got a yellow doesn't change that.

"Obviously it's hard tomorrow, and like I said before, I want to be aggressive on the stage and try to win.

On how he will look back on the events of stage 5 of the 2020 Tour de France and how he will tell his grandchildren when he is in his 80s, Yates responded in his typical candid style.

"Jesus, that's a good question. 'I mean, I almost wore yellow in 2016. More than anything, I want to get yellow on my own legs. So we'll see how it goes stage by stage."

As for the stage itself, little of interest happened until the last 10 km, which Yates explained was probably due to circumstances. Yesterday was a very tough stage," he said. And today it's basically downhill and headwind, and the Tour is three weeks long, and you're not going to get anywhere trying to get into a breakaway on a day like that."

"Everyone was playing very smart and trying to waste as little energy as possible.

At least in Yates' case, all the drama then unfolded.