Spectacular crash leaves Tour de France leader running to the finish line

Chris Froome had to literally run towards the finish line at the Tour de France Thursday after a massive crash with a motorbike on the course.

He was involved in a bike pile-up along with Australian Richie Porte, Bauke Mollema from the Netherlands and a motorbike recording the race during the 12th stage of the tour on Mont Ventoux.

Here's the moment the crash began.

Riders had to run up the hill between the crowds towards the finish line. Froome eventually managed to get onto another bike to finish the stage.

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Froome ended up crossing the line one minute and 40 seconds behind Mollema and 44 seconds behind Porte, but all three were given the same time by judges.

Porte described the carnage. “The crowd was on their own, I had to stop riding because I had nowhere to go and went straight over the motorbike," he said. "It’s just a mess. He’s [Froome] on my wheel and went straight into me."

Of course it wasn't long before the jokes came rolling in.

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After an agonising wait, Froome learned he was to keep the yellow jersey reserved for the first place cyclist in the race.

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Today's drama leaves Chris Froome in the lead for Team Sky, with the UK's Adam Yates and Bauke Mollema in second and third respectively.

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H/T Mashable France.

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