Lance Armstrong ‘not looking for sympathy on France ride’

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“People are always very nice, I respect it and I appreciate that and I enjoy being here”. In tennis or football, if you produce a really good performance, nobody questions that. “There was a lot of head wind, and it was complicated to open up a gap – especially against a team as strong as Sky“.

“The yellow jersey will be tough but the podium is still possible and we’ll try every day”.

The British rider blew away his rivals on stage ten of the Tour to establish what looks like an unassailable lead of two minutes and 52 seconds over his nearest rival.

Chris Froome fended off attacks on and off the bike in maintaining his commanding Tour de France lead on Thursday’s stormy final Pyrenean stage.

The former champion continued his staunch belief that he has been made a scapegoat for a sport that was rife with drug-takings during Armstrong’s incredible reign.

“He’s not on the starting line with us”, said the 30-year-old Briton.

But his team also faced fresh questions over their recruitment policy following revelations that a member of the staff worked for the notorious US Postal team and helped Armstrong to his first Tour de France victory.

The president of cycling’s governing body, the UCI, Brian Cookson, has warned that Armstrong “may not get quite the welcome he would like” among the French.

It emerged on Wednesday that Peter Verbeken was a soigneur (carer) for Postal, including on the 1999 Tour.

With several other mountain stages still to come, some people believe Froome could end up winning this year’s race by a landslide.

Froome says he’s clean and has never tested positive.

Porte nullified short-lived attacks by Contador, then Nibali and Alejandro Valverde, who may have been a decoy for Movistar team-mate Quintana.

Britain’s Chris Froome retained the yellow jersey a day earlier after a hot, rain-splattered stage won by Spain’s Joachim Rodriguez. Contador is sixth at 4:04.

“I’ve certainly got no plans of just releasing data out into the public”.

On the penultimate first category Port de Lers climb, world champion Michal Kwiatkowski and September Vanmarcke broke clear but a seven-man group followed, with Mikael Cherel leading the chase for AG2R teammate Bardet. It’s a worthy cause, but it has upset the Tour’s organizers and some of the Tour’s riders.

Sticky heat bothered the pack as it set off from Lannemezan on Thursday morning. The Spaniard picked off his opponents in the 15.8-kilometer ascent at Plateau de Beille to take the win. I was strenghtless. Yesterday, I crashed in the neutral zone and my hip was hurting. “I am not a specialist”. Froome finished more than five minutes back along with the other prerace favorites.

Froome fought off challenges by Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana to remain comfortably in first place ahead of Tee-jay van Garderen.

“If that were the rule, the caravan would nearly be empty”.