Contador opens up about Armstrong

Now that the Tour de France 2009 is over, the fur is finally flying. Alberto Contador, winner of the Tour, has come out and told the world what his real feelings are towards Armstrong — that he has never admired Lance and never will – personally, that is. Professionally, it’s a different story, says Contador, but then again how do you separate feelings? Are they in different containers? One must spill out into the other.

Contador also said that being around Armstrong was much more difficult than the entire Tour. “The situation was very delicate and tense because the conflict with Armstrong spread to the rest of the team. I don’t know yet which team I will be joining after this but I need a team that stands by me 100 percent.”

Meow!

Embarrassing moment of the Tour: the Tour organization played the Danish national anthem, not the Spanish one, when Contador was on the stand.

Although everyone has known that the relationship between the two men had always been tense even before the Tour when Contador joined Astana (not knowing Armstrong would join later and challenge him as team leader), neither has openly come out against the other . . . until now. Read Lance Armstrong’s tweets.

Contador wins stage 15 of Tour de France in Verbier

As expected, Alberto Contador (Astana) has won the first of the Alpine stages that ended in Verbier, Switzerland. He has also taken the maillot jaune. Lance Armstrong came in second. Contador showed his strength in the mountains and the next stages (rest day tomorrow) will test his experience and condition. Armstrong was very impressive indeed. A lot of people underestimated him because he retired four years ago and is much older than many riders.

Now things are getting interesting  . . .

Lance Armstrong joins Astana

Lance Armstrong will be riding for Astana in the coming year. Astana is a Kazakhstan team that has riders like Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer. I wonder how Contador will deal with this because until Armstrong’s announcement, Contador was the No. 1 rider. Contador says in an interview:

Sharing a team with Armstrong would be “seriously difficult,” says Contador. “I believe that I have won the right to ride as a team leader, without having to win the post,” he asserted. With Armstrong it could produce a difficult situation, because Armstrong would want the team to ride for him, at my expense, he explained. All the same, Contador said, “it is my intention to ride out my contract until 2010″ with Astana, though he admitted that he had received good offers from other teams. Can Armstrong win the Tour? “It would be very difficult, but not impossible,” believes the 2007 Tour winner.

Read more here:

http://www.podiumcafe.com/2008/9/23/620217/contador-on-the-armstrong

Lance Armstrong makes a comeback

Who would have believed? Lance Armstrong announced he’s coming out of retirement. He will be attempting to win his 8th Tour de France next year. It’s not known yet which team he’ll be riding for but rumors are circulating that it will be Astana.