Joaquim Rodriguez wins Tour de France 12th stage

The Spaniard has become a savvier rider with age. I wouldn’t say the last kilometres were easy but I managed to savour my victory. “Sometimes, when you change the rhythm, it can produce a surprise”.

For van Garderen, twice fifth in the Tour, the attacks on Froome on Wednesday played into his hands.

“For the first time in a couple of years I’ve watched the race”, admitted Armstrong.

Stage 12 of the Tour de France started in scorching conditions on Thursday but the peloton was made to push through a sudden shift in the weather in the Pyrenees featuring lightening, thunder and a downpour of rain and hail.

Four of the five times it has been used by the Tour the victor of the stage has gone on to win the yellow jersey in Paris and it is one of the climbs Marco Pantani used in 1998 to decimate the peloton.

Armstrong spoke about his sense of responsibility over his doping accusations against current race leader Chris Froome, but responded by saying that he understood his legacy as a drug cheat would live with him forever in France. To deal with that, Froome is willing to take testing even further. We all rode in an unfortunate era.

“Hopefully, those guys keep doing that so they can waste a few of their bullets and then in the third week [for the Tour’s four days in the Alps] they might pay the price”.

World champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) had seemed to be performing under-par early in the race, but was prominent until the day’s final climb, when he was caught and overtaken by Rodriguez.

Sticky heat bothered the pack as it set off from Lannemezan on Thursday morning.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the likes of Dan Martin, Thibault Pinot or Romain Bardet decided it could be the jersey for them now their dreams of yellow have faded.

Some competitors in the race this year have reacted to Armstrong’s presence with indifference.

The Kenyan-born Froome was asked about Armstrong’s return to the Tour.

“I don’t know Brian Cookson”. “I am not a specialist”.

The bunch included the main protagonists, so Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) remained 2:52 behind in second place overall and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) third, 3:09 adrift.

Froome finished ninth just over 5 minutes back as part of a 10-man group containing most of the rest of the top 10.

He said: “I wish Geoff Thomas and the guys all the best in raising as much money as they can”.

Although sympathising with Froome, Armstrong said he did not regret posting an ambiguous tweet in the wake of the Briton’s win on stage 10 that read: “Clearly Froome/Porte/Sky are very strong”.

Armstrong was riding a 198-kilometre (123-mile) stage a day ahead of the competing riders for a leukaemia charity but cycling officials have branded the exercise “disrespectful”.

Riding with amateurs and without hordes of fans cheering him on is a major comedown from Armstrong’s heydays from 1999-2005, when winning the Tour turned the cancer survivor into a superstar. Race leader Chris Froome called it “a non-event for us”.