Alberto Contador reveals that he tried to make peace with Lance Armstrong before the 2009 Tour de France: "I have never had a relationship with him again"
Cycling
One of the most memorable controversies in the recent history of cycling occurred in the 2009 Tour de France. Lance Armstrong was riding with Astana for the first time, sharing the team with Alberto Contador. As expected, sparks flew between the two - before 'El Pistolero' eventually won the yellow jersey.
Contador had net de vorige Tour en de Vuelta a España gewonnen, dus hij wilde de nieuwe editie van de Grande Boucle winnen. Maar dat botste natuurlijk met de belangen van Lance Armstrong. Beiden wilden koersen om te winnen. Over alle spanning die ontstond tussen de twee renners.
Contador, currently at O Gran Camiño, recently spoke on the podcast 'El Pinganillo' by Javier Ares: "It was complicated, but it was normal. If you have 2 riders with clear ideas, who both want to win the same race, you know that sparks are going to fly," he began explaining.
"At the time it was understandable that he wanted to win again. But the team also had to understand that I had the same desire. I had just won my last Tour de France, my last Giro d'Italia and my last Vuelta a España. I was looking forward to going back to the Tour de France and winning it again. But of course, I could only win one," added Alberto Contador, explaining the context.
"I think I was preparing myself mentally from the beginning of the year. The criticism on Twitter served as extra motivation for me to train even harder. What caused me all this is that I arrived at the Tour with the clear objective of winning the race," the Spanish cycling legend commented.
The bad relationship between the two was evident. That caused tension, not just between the two of them, but in the whole team. For that reason, Alberto Contador tried to talk to Lance Armstrong a day before the start of the 2009 Tour de France.
"When we arrived at the November training camp in Tenerife, where the official presentation took place, I saw how the team was totally focused on him. I thought: 'Look, it doesn't matter, all I want is my mechanic, my masseur, my trainer and my bike. I'll take care of the rest'. But from the first moment there was already tension. On my side, no, but if the other side is like that, nothing can be done," Contador explained.
"The day before the Tour de France I went to his room to talk to him. Our teammates were not as used to the pressure as the two of us. They were at the table in a situation that was not at all comfortable. I went to talk for everyone's sake, to make everything as smooth as possible. Unfortunately it was to no avail, but at least it was tried. I have never had a relationship with him again," he concluded.
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- Yes, I get that but it wasn’t exactly a good comparison if you ask me, circumstances and competition were very different. Also crashing whilst staying up front is pretty different from crashing and being left behind.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Pidcock was riding at a hard enough pace until the sector where Pogacar made up something like 20 seconds in something like... 20 seconds. Pidcock was quite a bit ahead, and suddenly he wasn't. At that point, clearly he would get caught, so might as well get caught sooner and work together. That's just good cycling. (I think the point is, plenty of people win even after they've come down in a crash - Van der Poel crashed at the worlds and won, anyway, for example).RidesHills08-04-2025
- Great sprint, Ineos set him up at exactly the right time, they protected the corners through the turns, and he did the job he was supposed to do. Nice to see him win again.RidesHills08-04-2025
- When Vingo, Rogla, and Wout were all at the height of their powers, a sight to behold.mobk08-04-2025
- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025