Tour De France 2010 Showdown: Armstrong vs. Contador

After watching Alberto Contador win the 2009 Tour de France, there is a lot of talk about what will happen next year.  Lance Armstrong, who placed third this year, will be starting his own team, sponsored by Radio Shack.  Contador has not said what his plans are for next year.

So, let’s take a look at what might happen next year.

Contador is not likely to sign with Armstrong’s new team.  They don’t get along at all and both think they have what it takes to win the Tour.  Contador should not have to share the team leadership, like Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel wanted this year, so he will go to a team that is willing to put their guys to work behind Contador.  On a new team, designated as the team leader for the Tour, Contador will have the freedom to attack on the mountains a lot more, without having to worry about preserving “Top Five” spots for two of his teammates.  Contador also has the advantage of being the best time trialler of all the General Classification contenders.  Overall, he should be the perennial favorite to win the Tour de France.

Armstrong, on the other hand, wants to prove to Contador that he can still race.  Armstrong, who will be 38 years old in next year’s Tour, thought that he might be better able to lead the team to a Tour win than Contador this year.  He’ll certainly try to prove that to Contador (11 years his junior) next year.  To Armstrong’s advantage, Johan Bruyneel will be directing the Tour for Team Radio Shack next year.  Bruyneel has more tour wins than any other team manager.  The downside of Armstrong’s new team is that there is no guarantee that they will be invited to the “invitation only” race.  Since France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, seems to love Armstrong almost as much as commentator Bob Roll does, it seems likely that Radio Shack will be invited next year.

To sum up, next year, Armstrong will be the undisputed team leader, will have a dream team surrounding him, and will have the incentive of beating the guy that showed him up in 2009.  He’ll be racing against Contador, who has been described (by Armstrong and Bruyneel) as the best climber around, while also provng that he is one of the best time triallers in the world.  Add Andy Schleck, who placed second in between Contador and Armstrong, and who is only going to get better, to the equation and one can deduce that the podium is not likely to look any different next year than it is did year.  Contador is still the clear favourite.