Lance Armstrong continued playing mind games with his younger rival and team mate Alberto Contador, hinting that he might be the strongest rider this year on the Tour and admitting for the first time that there are tensions in the Astana team.

With the race’s toughest stages still to come, the 37-year old Texan has decided to apply the pressure on his Spanish team mate and to show he is still in control, trailing Contador by just two seconds overall.

Armstrong is third overall after Sunday’s ninth stage out of the Pyrenees mountains — a solid result for a man coming back to competition after nearly four years in retirement. But the seven-time Tour champion wants more and has settled an appointment with second-placed Contador in the Alps.

“There’s not going to be a lot of change until Verbier,” Armstrong said, referring to the gruelling stage 15 between Pontarlier and Verbier, Switzerland. “We’ll have more moments there when we’ll see who’s truly the strongest.”

Despite losing 21 seconds to Contador at the first hilltop finish of the Tour on Friday in Arcalis, Armstrong seems convinced he can beat his team mate in his quest for an 8th Tour de France triumph. Armstrong even stated that he decided to let Contador go to favour team interests when the Spaniard made his dazzling move in Arcalis.

“I wouldn’t say that I could have easily followed, because it was an impressive attack,” Armstrong said. According to close friend and Astana manager Johan Bruyneel, Contador went against the team’s strategy when he attacked. “The honest truth is that there is a little tension,” Armstrong said on France-2 television in the clearest indication so far that teamwork may be taking a back seat to individual ambitions. “Contador is strong, and he is very ambitious.”

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