Doug #117 well said, some sense spoken at last! For­ Contador not to have attacked on one of the few­ mountain top finishes of this Tour would have been a­ rediculous waste of an opportunity to put time on his­ rivals - not just Armstrong but Sastre (the current­ champion remember!), Andy and Frank Schleck, Evans,­ etc. Make no mistake, if Armstrong could have followed­ Contador he would have. He couldn't simple as that­ - don't believe he was being the bigger man and­ following team orders. If he had such respect he­ wouldn't have isolated Contador on stage 3 and he­ wouldn't be dropping in the ambiguous and slightly­ snide comments in interviews regarding Contador and the­ leadership. Armstrong is still a very very good bike­ rider - up there with the top guys it seems - but he­ does not have the right to return to the race and­ suggest that there is an issue as to who is­ Astana's leader just because he dominated the race­ for 7 years. Contador has won the last 3 grande tours­ he's entered. Unless Armstrong can prove otherwise­ on the road Contador has to be their man and have the­ freedom to gain time at every opportunity.

I've always been a huge Lance fan, but there is­ nothing wrong with Contador's actions. 1) He is not­ some pretender, he won Giro and Tour of Spain in the­ same year.
2) Lance has hijacked the team that was set­ up to support Contador, claiming when he joined that he­ wouldnt be the leader and wouldnt compete for the­ win
3) Lance continued in a breakaway that won him 40s­ on Contador
4) Astana director Bruyneel is­ Armstrong's longtime mentor and friend
5) Armstrong­ won't go against team orders to attack Contador but­ it would suit him just fine if team orders prevent­ Contador pushing his advantage and results in the Tour­ coming down to a couple of time trials that Armstrong­ would have a chance of winning
6) Contador just wanted­ to get himself slightly ahead of Lance to put him on­ the front foot and minimise the chance of Astana­ declaring Lance the leader
7) He bent team orders, but­ only went 2km from the end to grab enough seconds to­ put him even with lance. It wasnt a major breach of­ team orders.
8) Lance would have done exactly the same­ thing. When Lance was team leader he would always put­ other riders in their place. Why would Lance fans­ praise that in Lance but despise that in Contador.
9)­ Lance constantly disparages Contador in interviews and­ it's pretty poor class on his part that he doesnt­ realise what a difficult position he has placed­ Contador in.

Wouldn't it have been good to have seen Armstrong­ in his prime against Contador? He's a hero to many­ but I think he is too old to win in Paris. Hasn't­ Armstrong helped to make it a fantastic tour so far.­ I’m glad im not Johan Bruyneel he’s going to earn his­ money keeping these two highly competitive­ personalities apart. I hope they don’t spoil it for­ each other.

jbandbetsymac u're absolutelly right Armstrong­ defenetelly his not playing fair with Contador, stage 3­ prove exactlly that and nobody complain, so what is the­ problem if Contador wants now to prove that those 20­ seconds that Armstrong said that could be important are­ no longer important? The 2 man's are exactlly in­ the same position so if Armstrong wants to put time on­ Contador he now knows that he have to do it fairlly­ (without the team help), if wants to win he have to­ crack Contador by himself, not team tactics or team­ orders

Mr DESPERATE CONTADOR ATTACKED HIS 3 TEAM MATES :-). If­ he had the legs and wasnt afraid he would have tried­ that 8-9 ks from the finish. RASMUSSEN is probably­ saying, "I practically won the TDF but they kicked­ me and gave it to this guy, now he is attacking his­ team mates ehhh :-). CONTADOR WON THE TOUR BECAUSE­ RASMUSSEN GOT KICKED OUT, that is written in HISTORY­ BOOKS. IT DOESNT MATTER HOW MUCH YOU TRY CONTADOR CANT­ EVEN BE COMPARED TO BIG MIG ( INDURAIN) LET ALONE TO­ LANCE ARMSTRONG.

THANKS LANCE, collarbone surgery­ some months ago, coming back 4 yrs after retirement ,­ riding like that with the best at the age of 38, even­ your team mate( we not mentioning his name, what a­ JOKE) has to attack you to gain just 22 seconds.

I guess for LA to come to the TDF and say he just wants­ to compete was a smoke screen, of course he's here­ to win. I am his biggest fan and wish him on daily,­ however team management ie Mr B should of made things­ clear as to the structure of the team and like it or­ lump it riders abide to it until things change.­ LA's face yesterday.... he was Pizzzzed big time­ though he said nothing. I to agree its nice to have NO­ dope scandal and just talk racing and tactics. Come on­ lance dont let the B grind you down

I love TDF and im happy people talkin about cycling­ instead of doping scandals this year. ı love­ Armstrong, hes one of the riders that made me a TDF­ fan. Love him or hate him, but at least respect what­ hes done and still doing. Its amaizing. And Contador,­ hes also great and i dont think it was wrong what he­ did yesterday. It was not against his teammate(s), its­ was for extending the gap between his rivals like­ Evans, Schleck, Sastre etc. And i am sure no matter­ what hes said before the stage about if Contador­ attacks, Armstrong could follow him if he had felt­ himself good enough to chase. Those guys make it more­ exciting day by day. And thats enough for being­ greatfull to Armstrong's return to TDF though.

Contador will probably be in the yellow by the end of­ the day and then all he has to do in reel in attacks­ for the rest of the tour. I can't see him not doing­ this with ease. Theoretically, the Tour is his, unless­ he implodes.

Listen everyone, we should be revelling in the fact­ that the new tour focus is on this renewed battle­ between Armstrong and everyone else on the tour instead­ of the shame of drug cheats. These men, all of them,­ deserve our utmost respect for what they put themselves­ through in this extraordinary test of stamina and­ courgage. I don't hate anyone on tour, I respect­ everyone's achievements from the first to the last.­ The battles between Contador, Armstrong, Evans, Shleck­ et al are good for the tour. Its keeping us glued to­ our screens again. Let's enjoy it

hey, "erdodogan", listen to me: Contador­ didn't attacked his team because he is stupid, as­ you said, he attacked his team beacause the team is­ against him, especially Armstrong. And I assure you­ that Mr. Armstrong won't win the Tour of France;)­ :)

Contador - what are great name; Armstrong - was a­ trumpet player - as far as I know....

I hope armstrong will not follow evans style last -­ riding defensively. i think he should attack if he­ wants to win.

Contador and his turn of pace was like ricci in­ mountains last year unbelievable i thought.

armstrong reserve his strenght for the upcoming stages.­ contador just piling up seconds because he can't­ hang out with the bigs. the next two stages will shapen­ up the standings. the results will be good enough­ before the itt and the last higg mountain stages. but,­ if the standings going to the itt and last mountain­ stage, i bet my $$$ to lance.

lance will wear the­ yellow for the 8th time

webbski - I guess that you are exercising comedic­ license so that you could slip the Knightly/Brand joke­ in there. Have a look again, stages 7, 9, 16, 20 all­ include HC climbs. So the Jo Brand reference is still­ valid because she does have the body of Bibendum (The­ Michelin Man).

Seems to be some really biased comment around .
I­ thought the commentators were appalling yesterday­ .

The fact is that when Contador made his break ,­ Armstrong was powerless to follow , unless he was­ prepared to break the team apart . The idea of a­ teammate hauling the other contenders back to the­ leader is just ridiculous !!!!

I am sure Armstrong ,­ who jumped on the wheel of anyone who looked like­ trying to bridge the gap , was hoping like hell someone­ could pull Contador back , but the simple fact is he­ could do nothing himself .
The reverse position applied­ to Contador when Armstrong was in the break-away .
The­ Commentators know this well enough , especially Roche­ and Kelly ,so why the ridiculous commentary ???

The­ interesting thing is how long this team protocol can­ last . One suspects as we head towards the end in the­ Alps it may be everyone for themselves regardless of­ riding on the same team .
Armstrong was very wise to­ sit there yesterday , its too early to break the team­ and there is a lot of riding to be done .....

Nobody doubts LA's acheivements (though 7 GT wins­ in 7 years is not as impressive as San Miguels 7 GTs in­ just 5 years...), he's hated because he's a­ @#$%, not because he won a few GTs.

Frogs,
Excuse "Andreas"#95, he is a fan of­ Ullrich. He is dealing with the pain LANCE CAUSED­ TELECOM and their fans for 7 yrs :-). To add insult to­ injury, he came back to ride with the best and shake­ the cyling world at the age of 38, not even getting­ salary, and surgery after broken collarbone. IT IS TOO­ MUCH FOR LANCE ARMSTRONG HATERS