All's fair in love and cycling - Armstrong takes on Contador (Feature)

By Siegfried Mortkowitz Jul 7, 2009, 16:58 GMT

Montpellier, France - Lance Armstrong could not hide his frustration after failing by a fraction of a second to take the lead in the 2009 Tour de France in Tuesday's fourth stage of the race.

'It's a little bit disappointing, but that's cycling,' Armstrong told France 2 television.

After Tuesday, Armstrong stood second, in a virtual tie with Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, with teammate Alberto Contador 19 seconds behind in third.

Anyone who thought that the seven-time Tour champion would be content to work as a glorified water carrier for Contador in the Tour knew better after Monday's third stage.

Taking advantage of a powerful acceleration by the entire Team Columbia with 30km to go in the stage, Armstrong found himself in a breakaway group of 27 riders, with Contador and the other title favourites left behind.

When the stage ended, Armstrong had gained 41 seconds on Contador, Australian Cadel Evans, Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, Spaniard Carlos Sastre and other rivals for the title. Four years after riding in his last Tour, the man known as 'The Boss' was back.

Contador, who was named team leader by Astana manager Johan Bruyneel, was obviously not happy with the fact that Armstrong and two other Astana riders helped Team Columbia outpace the rest of the peloton, or pack of riders.

'I never heard this order given in the earphones,' Contador said, effectively charging his teammates with disloyalty.

But one of the Astana riders in the breakaway group with Armstrong, Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia, said that Bruyneel had given the order. Television pictures showed Armstrong himself giving his teammates the signal to help the group accelerate.

Questions were being raised Tuesday in the French media why Armstrong was part of the breakaway with two teammates and Contador was left behind.

'I was just trying to stay up front, stay out of trouble, and then it happened,' Armstrong said. 'Good positioning, experience and a little bit of good luck.'

However, one of Team Columbia's riders is Armstrong's former team lieutenant and friend George Hincapie. No one is suggesting that Hincapie informed Armstrong of his team's strategy, but many could be thinking it.

After the stage, Armstrong very clearly declared his intention to take the race to Contador.

'I don't agree that there's only one leader on the team,' he told France 2 television. 'I've won the Tour seven times. I think that should be respected.'

If Astana had won Tuesday's team time trial by more than 40 seconds over Cancellara's Saxo Bank team, Armstrong would have worn the leader's yellow jersey.

That would have forced his teammates, including Contador, to work for him, an astonishing development so early in the three-week race.

So at a stage in the Tour when the spotlight is traditionally on the sprinters and cycling aficionados are looking ahead to the mountain stages, Armstrong has infused the race with drama by creating a race within a race, for leadership of the Astana team.

'Alberto is the leader of the team, Lance is the rider we protect,' Bruyneel said, creating more smoke than light.

Another Astana sports director, Alain Gallopin, said: 'This changes nothing for us. Alberto lost nothing to the other Tour favourites. He therefore remains our leader.'

And it looks as if, with 17 stages left to ride, Armstrong and Contador will be fighting for the title between themselves.

After Tuesday's stage Evans, Sastre and Russian Denis Menchov trailed Armstrong by between 2 min 44 sec and 3 min 52 sec, a great deal of time to make up.

Contador and Armstrong were both confident of victory.

'The Tour will not be decided by what happened (Monday),' the Spaniard said. 'The time differences are insignificant.'

'Don't count me out,' said Armstrong.