Astana's former sporting director Johan Bruyneel, whose recent interview with Alberto Contador rekindled interest in the bitter power struggle between teammate Lance Armstrong and the young Spanish champion at the Tour de France In response, he gave a lengthy defense of his own performance in the 2009 Tour de France.

Last week, in an interview with YouTuber Valenti Sanjuan, Contador claimed that among other problems during the 2009 Tour, he was isolated from the team on stage 3, which had an echelon, and that he risked being deliberately sabotaged by team orders on the road to Andorra four days later. He argued that there was a risk of.

Not only that, Contador had a tense dispute with teammate Armstrong, was barred from accompanying his trusted domestique Benjamin Noval in the race, and had problems with his team bike.

Speaking on the podcast El Leñero, Bruyneel offers a very different view of the events of the Tour de France, which ended with Contador's second win and Armstrong's third place overall.

While taking pains to emphasize that he had no problem with Contador and that he was "not here to attack the great champion," Bruyneel says that the implication that Contador was there to support Armstrong over his Spanish teammate is emphasized that he felt it was not justified. Instead, he argued that Contador was there to protect the team's global interests.

Regarding Armstrong's lead on stage 3 and Contador's delay, Bruyneel claimed that "between George Hincapie (Armstrong's friend who belonged to High Road and helped create the section where Contador lost time) and Lance Armstrong There was no conspiracy between the two," he insisted. Highroad just split the race, and there was no rider there who wasn't paying attention."

As for his strategic decision to have the Astana team work with Highroad to keep Echelon, he said, "When I looked through the list provided by the radio tour and was convinced that no one could challenge our team (in GC), I repeat, our team. Why? Any sporting director would have done the same thing. By no means am I attacking Contador."

Regarding the Andorra stage, Contador claimed that Bruyneel had insisted the night before that the team go "slowly" on the stage when, as a climber, he wanted an all-out attack on the race's first summit finish of stage 7.

"We never have a team meeting the night before, but in any case, my instructions on the bus the next morning were that we could not take the yellow jersey that fast. I might have told them to keep the group together, because there were still 14 stages to go. But I didn't tell him to go slow."

"If I felt that Alberto was so strong and a leader, I should have said so in the team bus that morning. But he didn't.

However, Bruyneel's assertions about his strategy and yellow jersey contrast a bit with Armstrong's tactics as a leader in most of the Tour. In Bruyneel's defense, the Andorra stage of the 2009 Tour was significantly earlier than in past editions, where the mountain stages began much later.

Another source close to Astana that year supports Contador's claim that he was not allowed to use the team's top wheel that was reserved for Armstrong in the time trial, as Contador claims, but Bruyneel "cannot confirm or deny " he said. 0]

"At the Tour that year, everyone had 40 disc wheels, not two," Bruyneel insisted.

"Lance had a personal contract with Trek, so he was using Trek bikes.

"Lance's main reason for returning to racing was to promote his foundation on an international level, and he raced on a bike that would be auctioned off and the money would go to charity," Bruyneel noted, because Armstrong's lightest on the market disc wheels were purchased from a German company as a result of an American sponsorship deal, which indirectly explained why they were covered with different decals.

However, a source close to the 2009 Astana team and who participated in the Tour (who requested anonymity) told Cycling News, "The best wheels in the Tour time trial were Lance's. The best wheel in that Tour time trial was for Lance.

The same source also claimed that Contador had "as good as lost the race" because he lacked adequate team support on at least one flat stage.

Contador also claimed that before one crucial stage, his personal mechanic had his bike up in his hotel room.

"It's a mental fabrication by someone who doesn't trust others, sees danger in every part of his life, and is a bit paranoid. To think that my team could do anything against Contador's bike is the most ridiculous thing. Alberto has isolated himself. According to other sources, Armstrong himself had his own mechanics carry his bike to his room.

In an interview with El Leñero, Bruyneel said that the two team leaders had strong characters, so much so that at the first team training camp in the Canary Islands in January, "on the first day they didn't speak to each other, they didn't even say 'hello.'" He admits that it was never easy. But that tour was not as dramatic as the press, especially the Spanish press, made it out to be"

He also claimed that "three or four who-knows-who" in Contador's own network of closest collaborators, without naming names, played a massive role in complicating matters between the Spaniard and the team.

In addition, Bruyneel said that Contador was the team's leader in the Tour de France and that he told Armstrong in his first meeting with the Texan in 2008, when he was beginning his comeback trail, that Contador was the strongest in the Tour and would usually win. He added. Armstrong's answer to that was, "We'll see."

He also called Contador the best stage racer of his generation and said, "Then there were a series of circumstances in the second half of his career that would affect his career and his association with Froome, but in my opinion Alberto was one of the greatest stage racers of all time."

He also said that Contador was the best stage racer of his generation.

Armstrong himself has refused to get involved in the controversy, stating on his Instagram account that Contador deserved to win the 2009 Tour as the "best rider" of the year.

Bruyneel also said in an interview with Reniero that his relationship with Armstrong continues to be good, while he and Contador "had a very good professional relationship until that year's Tour.