Contador wary of Schleck threat

Alberto Contador said watching Lance Armstrong suffer during the Tour de France's tough eighth stage left him feeling sympathy, as well as admiration, for the American.

Armstrong endured arguably his worst day of his career on the race when he crashed several times Sunday before trailing home almost 12 minutes behind stage winner Andy Schleck.

The American's bid for an eighth yellow jersey is now virtually over, a situation which, surprisingly, provoked feelings of sympathy from old foe Contador.

"When I saw (the stage) on television I thought about all the things he'd accomplished in his career," Contador, the reigning champion, said during the race's first rest day Monday.

"He really had a lot of bad luck, but still you don't like to see a champion end up like that. I admire Armstrong, but maybe even more now than before."

Contador's remarks come as a surprise less than a year after he said he had never admired the American, and never will.

Cancer survivor Armstrong won the race seven years in a row from 1999-2005, after which he retired before making a second comeback in 2009.

Contador won the Tour de France in 2007 with Armstrong's former team Discovery Channel before they pulled out of cycling.

The Spaniard joined Astana for 2008, but that year the team were not invited to the race -- a sanction for their exclusion in 2007 when Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping.

When Armstrong made his return to the sport in 2009, it was with Astana -- who were under new management.

However Contador and Armstrong's cohabitation at the 2009 race was a tense affair. Contador was the team leader, but Armstrong could not resist the temptation to show his own ambitions, leading to a division of loyalties in the team.

Armstrong eventually finished third overall last year as Contador went on to clalim his second victory with a lead of over four minutes on Luxemburger Andy Schleck.

After the race, tension transformed into a brief war of words with Contador saying that although Armstrong "is a great rider and had a great Tour, on a personal level I have never admired him and never will".

Contador meanwhile said he is satisfied with his race up till now.

Despite sitting third overall at 1min 01sec behind Cadel Evans, with Andy Schleck in second place at 20sec, the Spaniard said it will soon be time to target the real challengers.

The third week in the Pyrenees features four tough days of climbing, before a long time trial on the penultimate stage.

"Soon I will have to pick which riders I really need to keep an eye on," the Spaniard added.

"For the moment there's quite a bunch still in contention, but my biggest rival is Andy Schleck.

"Still, Evans (Levi) Leipheimer and (Denis) Menchov are all strong time triallists, so I can't allow them to take too much off me."

Schleck my biggest rival: Contador

Two-time champion Alberto Contador believes Andy Schelck will be his biggest yellow jersey rival in the remaining mountain stages of the Tour de France.

Contador sits third overall at 1min 01sec behind new race leader Cadel Evans of Australia, who has a 20sec lead on Schleck following the Luxemburger's victory on stage eight in the Alps.

Schleck's attack in the final kilometre of the 14km climb to Avoriaz on Sunday left Contador's group, which also contained Evans and several other contenders, struggling to counter.

They eventually finished 10secs behind Schleck, and after the first real mountain stage of the race Contador has seen enough to believe that climbing faster than the Saxo Bank leader will be his biggest challenge this year.

"Last year he (Schleck) gave me a few problems and this year he will be my biggest rival," said the Spaniard, who won the race in 2007 and 2009.

"When the attacks started (on the last climb) it wasn't easy for me to counter, then Schleck attacked. I tried to follow him but when I saw they'd taken a small lead I decided to sit up.

"In the end we lost a few seconds but overall it was a good result."

Contador's Astana team set most of the attacking pace on the race's last two climbs Sunday, a tactic employed to drop rivals and which proved fatal for some.

Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong, who suffered a hip injury in one of his several crashes on the stage, could not close the gap and was left trailing to finish almost 12 minutes adrift, his Tour campaign now virtually over.

Schleck, like Evans and many other favourites, was left with no teammates to help him as Contador's Astana team kept numbers up front until the final few kilometres of the stage.

The Spaniard said Astana had done great work in trying to put time into their rivals, and that as of Tuesday's final day in the Alps they will look for a repoeat.

"We took responsibility for the race because we saw that Lance (Armstrong) was behind and that all the rest (of the field) were struggling.

"It seems he (Armstrong) lost a lot of time although there's still a lot of stages for him to attack.

"After the rest day, I hope we can be just as effective."

Armstrong, on his final Tour campaign, is now 39th overall at 13:26 behind Evans.