A lanky guy in a yellow shirt runs on an asphalt road. Marathon runner? No, Tour de France overall leader Chris Froome on the slopes of Mont Ventoux.
 The Briton looked set to extend his advantage over main rival Nairo Quintana after only Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema could follow his brutal acceleration 3km from the finish line on Thursday.
 But as Porte was leading the trio, the TV motorbike in front of them stopped behind other motorbikes as hundreds of spectators blocked the road and the Australian crashed into it face first and fell off his bike. Behind him, Froome and Mollema also took a tumble but the Dutchman quickly got back on his bike. Not Froome.
 “Ventoux is full of surprises. In the final kilometre we had to push hard on the brakes and the three of us hit the motorbike,” said Froome. “There was another motorbike behind us which broke my bike.”
 Talking to his sports director Nicolas Portal through radio communication, Froome started to run towards the line as Porte came past him on his bike. “I told myself, ‘I don’t have a bike and my car is five minutes behind with another bike, it’s too far away, I’m going to run a bit.’ I had to run.”
 No matter what happens in the 2016 Tour, it will forever be remembered for Froome’s foot-up act.
The world’s most prestigious bicycle race has in the past thrown up scenes of pandemonium, and even comedy, but nothing like this before.
 “When I thought I had seen everything in cycling: Will to win!! Good decision to keep @chrisfroome with yellow jersey,” said Portuguese former world champion Rui Costa on Twitter.
 Froome’s single-minded desire struck many as much as the comical scenes of a running cyclist. Millions of stunned television viewers could barely believe their eyes as pictures of the tall, gangly Briton running along the road in his cycling shoes — known as clips — were beamed into their homes.
 Almost immediately, the social media reaction went into overdrive. A picture of Froome was superimposed onto another of Kenyan runners, producing the comical effect of the helmeted cyclist in his yellow jersey running alongside athletes.
 Another tweet likened Froome, who was born in Kenya, to the film character Forrest Gump, portrayed by Tom Hanks, who decided on a whim to run across America.
 Even his own team could see the funny side as Sky manager Dave Brailsford joked on French television: “Maybe next year he’ll run the Paris marathon!”
 However, the incident has also provoked also a serious debate about security. Porte described the finale as “crazy” and fumed at organisers: “If you can’t control the crowds what can you control?”
 Mollema was equally frustrated and wrote on Twitter: “This may NOT happen in the biggest race of the World!!”
 Tour director Christian Prudhomme said “exceptional circumstances” called for an “exceptional decision” to be made regarding Froome’s reinstatement as race leader. But he also announced an inquiry into what went wrong.
 In the meantime, the footage of Froome, clad in yellow, running along the tarmac will live long in the memory.