Richie Porte's yellow helmet (left) just sneaks into the shot after the crash on Mont Ventoux

Richie Porte slammed the "crazy" crowds on Mont Ventoux that caused stage 12 of the Tour de France to end in chaotic scenes.

Porte, race leader Chris Froome and Bauke Mollema were all brought down in a dramatic crash inside the final kilometre of the shortened stage, when a camera bike was forced to stop by heaving crowds.

The three riders were following close behind, having attacked the remaining race leaders, and Porte slammed into the back of the motorbike, leaving Froome and Mollema with nowhere to go.

Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) was able to get straight back on his bike, but Porte (BMC Racing) and Froome (Team Sky) had to wait and both stood to lose chunks of time until race commissaires amended the final results.

Porte (right) managed to get back on his bike before a running Chris Froome

Porte and Froome were awarded the same finishing time as Mollema - a 19-second advantage on the rest of the group they had attacked - with the Australian moving up from 14th to 11th as a result, 2min 22sec behind Froome.

Porte said: "The crowd was just all on the road and the motorbike just stopped right in front of me and I had nowhere to go. Next minute I was straight over the top of the motorbike. It was just a mess.

"Chris was on my wheel and went straight into me. If you can't control the crowds, what can you control?

"It's not really the motorbikes; it's the crowd. They are in your face the whole time, pushing riders, and at the top there, that was just crazy."

The Tour continues on Friday with a 37.5km individual time trial on stage 12. Find out more about the route in our race guide and follow the stage with our live blog from 12pm BST.