Cycling: Team-mates will battle this one out

Tonight in Monaco, Lance Armstrong commences his battle for an eighth Tour de France victory after a three-year absence - and the battle could become a civil war.

Now 37, it will be a new experience for Armstrong. His previous seven attempts were largely trouble-free but this time, his road to wearing yellow in Paris is far trickier and not just because of his age.

On this occasion, the biggest obstacle could prove to be Alberto Contador, the 2007 Tour winner and far and away the most successful of his younger rivals. He also just happens to be Armstrong's team-mate.

The latent conflict between the two has been provoked by cycling's central paradox: that it is a team sport which only one person wins.

While it was obvious that Contador would make the Tour his major target of the season, Armstrong, despite the risk of upsetting his team-mate, has consistently refused to rule out doing the same.

Despite how hungry Armstrong was to win before he retired - he would refer to runners-up as "first losers" - the Texan's chances of victory are perhaps less than they were in the past. But they remain considerable.

"If Lance is in the condition he says he is, and he's up there after the opening time-trial in Monaco, then he can win the Tour," says the 2006 race champion, Oscar Pereiro, of Spain. "And Contador's in the wrong team."

This particular showdown has been a long time coming. Last autumn, Contador was halfway towards winning his third major stage race in a row, the Tour of Spain, when he heard it confirmed that Armstrong was making a comeback.

A month later the Texan announced he would be re-forging the old alliance between himself and long-standing manager Johan Bruyneel, which meant joining Contador's team, Astana. The Spaniard talked to a couple of rival squads about quitting but finally remained.

The result is that the Kazakh-financed squad looks ridiculously top-heavy, to the point where almost the only question before today's start is not whether an Astana rider can win the Tour but which one will do so? Apart from Armstrong and Contador, two of the team's other leading lights, Montana-born Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas Klden, have both taken top three places in the Tour.

However, it is Armstrong and the potential for conflict with a team-mate 11 years his junior that has really gripped cycling fans' attention. The official team line is that Contador is leader.

But it is hard to see that continuing if Armstrong gains time on him in Monaco's opening time-trial, or later.

- INDEPENDENT