For some reason, road cycling finds itself less interesting then the stories written about it in the media. That was almost certainly the case in this years Tour de France, which was won by Spain’s Alberto Contador. (Cool name, btw…)
The ongoing playground spat between Contador and seven time winner Lance Armstrong was well documented throughout the race but you would expect once the winner was decided, that the teammates would let it go, shake hands and move on. Not so.
Contador is reportedly furious with Armstrong for criticising his race strategy. Which leaves me with just one question… Really?
"My relationship with Lance Armstrong is zero," Contador told a news conference in Madrid.
"He is a great rider but it is another thing on a personal level, where I have never had great admiration for him and I never will."
Nice. I mean come on Alberto, you beat the guy, you proved your strategy was solid and everyone knows you won’t be riding together next year, isn’t that enough? Clearly not.
Thankfully Armstrong took the high road, so we won’t have to put up with this story much longer.
“I think this year's performance would have beaten my performances in 2001, 2004 and 2005,"
"Contador is that good, so I don't see how I would have been higher than that, even in the other years."
Personally, I think the real issue here is how stupid a rivalry this is though. Contador is 26 and at the peak of his career. Armstrong is 37 and only came back to the sport ‘cause he had shit all else to do (er… one assumes). Ah well, at least it gave cycling journo’s the chance to write about something other than substance abuse for a month…
[BBC Sport]