Durand kicked off the Tour

Moreau was fined for fighting with Sastre

Jacky Durand has been thrown out of the Tour de France for holding on to his team car while climbing the Pyrenees on stage 12.

The Frenchman was caught by race stewards holding on to the FDJeux.com car and was immediately expelled from the Tour.

He said: "Apparently I was seen clinging to a car for two kilometres. But I had a race steward behind me all day."

Christophe Moreau and Oscar Sastre avoided being kicked out of the race after fighting on the same stage.

The pair were clearly seen throwing punches in the peloton and were fined £180 each.

Moreau was handed a two-minute penalty for his part in the fracas, while Sastre was docked just 20 seconds.

Missing the cut

The rigours of the toughest stage to date led to a host of retirements.

Antonio Tauler, Oscar Pozzi, Stefano Casagranda and Ruslan Ivanov all pulled out during the final ascent.

They were joined on the sidelines by Andrej Hauptman and Fabien de Waele.

Francois Simon, Gorka Gonzalez and Samuel Sanchez all made it across the finish but failed to make the cut-off time and will not start the 13th stage as a result.