Tour de France 2016: Chris Froome runs up Mont Ventoux after bizarre crash damages his bike

Froome was involved in a freak accident that left him running up the Mont Ventoux climb

Chris Froome was involved in a bizarre accident during stage 12 of the Tour de France that led to the yellow jersey wearer running up Mont Ventoux.

The accident was triggered by Froome’s former Team Sky colleague Richie Porte colliding into a motorbike that was carrying a cameraman, which appeared to stop in front of the riders after a spectator got in its way. Porte collided heavily with the motorbike, before Froome and others followed in being knocked off their bikes.

As the accident unfolded, TV footage captured Froome running up the mountain, before he took one of his teammates bikes to continue the ascent.

As a result, Froome lost time to all of his General Classification rivals, although it was not immediately clear if Froome would lose the yellow jersey as race officials can rule to neutralise the race and ensure that Froome would keep his lead.

Had the result stood, Froome will drop down to sixth, 53 seconds off the new leader Adam Yates. However, he took Twitter shortly after the stage finished to say “Still in the #YellowJersey #TDF” in apparent confirmation that the accident caused the race to be neutralised, maintaining his 47-second lead over Yates in the General Classification.

Thomas De Gendt won the shortened stage, which had already been reduced by six kilometres due to gale-force winds on the peak of Mont Ventoux.

Porte criticised the organisation of the stage after fans littered the road, leaving the riders enough space for them to ride single-file up the steep climb.

"The crowd were all over the road and it was such a mess,” Porte said immediately afterwards.

"I don't know what they're going to do but they're going to have to do something about it. That can't stand, some sort of discretion has to be used.

"It was just crazy."

Froome has already landed himself in crowd trouble during this year’s Tour de France after he punched a man wearing a Colombia shirt who impeded the two-time champion. Froome hit the man in the face after he feared the flag that was draped around the man – who appeared to be supporting Froome’s rival Nairo Quintana – would become tangled in his wheels.