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Contador, Lance trade barbs after Tour

(AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)

MADRID (AP) Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are sniping again after a fragile truce during the Tour de France.

Contador, who secured his second Tour win on Sunday in Paris, said he had no admiration for the American as a person and tensions between the two had a negative effect on the Astana team. Armstrong, the seven-time champion who finished third in his first Tour since 2005, responded that Contador should "drop this drivel."

"My relationship with Lance Armstrong is zero," Contador said late Monday in his hometown of Pinto outside Madrid. "He's a great rider and he did a great Tour. Another thing is on a personal level, where I have never admired him and never will."

Contador's Tour reign expected to last
PARIS (AP) Even as his chance of winning this year's Tour de France slipped away, Lance Armstrong earned more than his share of attention. He announced that he was forming a new cycling team with RadioShack for next year's race. He finished in third - not bad for 37 and more than three years away from the sport. (MORE)

No Tour riders test positive for doping
PARIS (AP) The Tour de France ended Sunday without a single rider testing positive for doping - so far. At an event hit by at least one drug scandal every year since 2000, including six in 2008 alone, does the lack of positives mean the peloton is clean? (MORE)

Bruyneel gets ninth Tour win as manager
PARIS (AP) Johan Bruyneel, the manager behind Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France victories, put winning ahead of friendship this year. When he sensed the 37-year-old Armstrong wasn't on pace to win again, Bruyneel decided Alberto Contador would be the Astana team leader - despite years of putting the American first. (MORE)

French group to retest 2008 Tour samples
PARIS (AP) The French anti-doping agency will retest some blood samples from last year's Tour de France, mainly for the banned blood-booster CERA. About 15 riders will be affected by the retesting, AFLD president Pierre Bordry said Sunday. He refused to identify the riders, but said they had been informed of the proceedings before the start of this year's Tour in Monaco. (MORE)

Contador takes anthem mishap in stride
PARIS (AP) Alberto Contador took it in stride when, unexpectedly, the Danish national anthem echoed on the Champs-Elysees in celebration of the Spaniard's Tour de France victory. Tour organizers were tipped off by his older brother, Fran, that the wrong anthem was played at the Tour awards ceremony after Sunday's race finish, Contador's spokesman said. (MORE)

Tens of thousands witness Tour finish

PARIS (AP) Chanting Norwegians in Viking helmets, flag waving Brits, and Americans wearing Stars and Stripes top hats were among the tens of thousands of cycling fans who massed along the Champs-Elysees on Sunday to watch the final sprint of the Tour de France.

At the finish line near the Grand Palais and the Champs-Elysees Clemenceau metro station, the progress of Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, Lance Armstrong and the rest of the Tour riders on their way to the finish of the 2,149-mile race was broadcast live on a giant screen. (MORE)

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