Before and during the Tour de France, the tension between seven-time winner Lance Armstrong and his teammate Alberto Contador (who won this year’s race on Sunday) was palpable but merely simmering. Both racers, uncomfortably supported by the same team of Astana bikers, hoped to win but at least made efforts to publicly avoid maligning each other. Now that the race is over, the tiny, fingerless bike gloves are off. “My relationship with Lance is zero,” Contador told reporters yesterday. “He is a great rider and has completed a great race, but it is another thing on a personal level, where I have never had great admiration for him and I never will.” Contador, who was greeted as a hero when he returned to his native Spain yesterday, added that during the tour, “the days in the hotel were harder than those on the road … The situation was tense and delicate because the relationship between myself and Lance extended to the rest of the staff.” Armstrong, hearing Condator’s comments only after what we imagine was a very long nap (the dude is almost 40, after all), eventually blasted back on his Twitter page. “Seeing these comments from AC. If I were him I’d drop this drivel and start thanking his team. w/o them, he doesn’t win,” he growled. “hey, pistolero, there is no “i” in “team”. what did i say in March? Lots to learn. Restated.” Man, we bet if English were your second language, restated might sound like a really bad word.
