Alberto Contador shares a behind-the-scenes look at the 2009 Tour de France, in which he beat Astana teammate Lance Armstrong to his second overall win.

The power struggle between Contador, then an up-and-comer, and Armstrong, then a veteran with seven Tour victories, is well known, and Contador was left behind when the Astana team attacked en masse on the windy third stage and counter-attacked on the way to Andorra and again in Switzerland. He counter-attacked on the way to Andorra and again in Switzerland.

In a lengthy interview with YouTube blogger Valenti Sanjuan, Contador lifted the lid on the backstage tension that had built between him and the Texan during that year's Tour de France.

"The Tour began with a big dispute about whether the leader was Armstrong or me," Contador said.

"I went to see Lance before the race and he said it would be better for him if I won. But then I saw him on Twitter saying, 'Let's see who will be the leader in the time trial tomorrow. It was a waste of time and I couldn't even get to the siesta."

It was a difficult day at Echelon, where Contador, despite being the nominal leader, was pulled away because he sarcastically said, "The race radio must be broken."

"Team director [Johan] Bruyneel said in a meeting the day before [a rest day in Barcelona], "I want to stay calm in the mountains, I want to be able to keep my head down. I asked my teammates, who are neutral, and they said, 'Alberto, it's better that he [Armstrong] does it than that you make a fool of yourself.'"

Contador went on the attack in Alcaris, Andorra, and made up enough time on Armstrong to take the overall lead.

"Armstrong told me, 'I didn't respect the team tactics. He stopped me there and said, 'OK Pistolero'" - Contador's nickname.

"But after the meeting was over and everyone got off the bus, he came up to me and said in Spanish, 'No me jodas' (don't make fun of me)."

In addition to highlighting the tension, Contador also revealed details about better-known incidents, such as having to buy wheels from an outside source (the Milram team) because the TT wheels in the team were exclusive to Armstrong. Ultimately, the Spaniard won both the stage 18 time trial and the Tour de France, while Armstrong finished third in Paris.

In an interview with Eurosport in 2009, Armstrong admitted that there was "real tension" between himself and Contador, and that "other riders got caught up in that tension and it was a quiet dinner table once or twice."

"It was something I had never experienced before.

After the race, Contador claimed that "the days in the hotel were harder than on the road."

In 2010, they joined different teams, with Armstrong and Bruyneel moving to RadioShack and Contador to Astana.