The first mountain stage of the Tour de France takes place on Friday between Barcelona and Andorra-Arcalis and is expected to sort out the rivalry between the two Astana leaders.

Armstrong, who narrowly missed his first yellow jersey since 2005 after Tuesday’s team time trial, will lead Contador by 19 seconds in the overall standings at the start.

“To me, Contador is the natural team leader. He won the last three big Tours he entered and we don’t know what Armstrong is really worth. We’ll know tomorrow but for the time being, I believe Contador is stronger,” Hinault said.

Hinault is familiar with such internal rivalries. In 1986, he was in the same team as Greg LeMond and he helped the American win his first of three Tour victories.

“I don’t think Astana have been very fair on Contador. They hired him as their team leader and then out of the blue, they tell him, now you have to team up with Armstrong,” he said.

“Then they kept criticising him every time he faltered, like in Paris-Nice. It’s not a great way to treat your leader” he added.

Armstrong, who lost 22 seconds to Contador in the opening individual time trial in Monaco, took 41 seconds back two days later when he joined the right break close to the finish in La Grande Motte. “If Contador was their leader, they should never have let him down and they should not have cooperated in the break,” Hinault said.

Looking back on his similar position in 1986, he insisted he had been true to his word. “To be honest, I’m convinced I could have won this Tour, but I had promised Greg I would help him,” he said.

Hushovd wins sixth stage

Norway’s Thor Hushovd defied the rain and treacherous conditions to win the sixth stage in a mass sprint finish on Thursday. Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland kept the yellow jersey, with just a split-second lead over Lance Armstrong after the race entered Spain with a 181.5-km trek from Gerona to Barcelona.

Hushovd, of the Cervelo team, collected his seventh Tour stage win by edging out two Spaniards — three-time world champion Oscar Freire in second, and Jose Joaquin Rojas in third. “I’m just too, too happy,” said Hushovd. “It was a nervous day too, because it was raining and the roads were slippery.”

They clocked 4 hours, 21 minutes, 33 seconds, the same time as 40 other riders including Armstrong and Cancellara.