Back in November, Alberto Contador told La Gazzetta dello Sport that Lance was given better Time Trial wheels for the Tour so he bought one with his own money. Later Armstrong told Het Nieuwsblad and the Telegraaf that Contador & the Spanish press had lied, and have the example of the time trial wheel story, which he said never happened, & suggested people could call Trek to confirm. Bruyneel soon corroborated that story, saying he had no idea where Alberto had gotten that story, that the whole team, "especially the leaders", had the same materials. Saturday in Marca Bruyneel changed his story, and said that someone had seen Lance's wheel was a different color because of the Livestrong logo, and told Alberto it was a better wheel, so Contador contacted Trek and bought another one. The key there is that Bruyneel comfirmed the actual puchase, showing that Contador had told the truth, and that Armstrong had started a vicious lie without being called on it

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Now the maligned Marca writer has printed complete details of what went down in July - after the jump.  

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I had hoped that since Team Astana is a going concern, and a least for now Bruyneel is still a paid member of management, he would avoid any conflict of interest. I guess that was kind of naive after following the Tour and reading Spanish news stories. I know that Bruyneel is trying to negotiate his way out of his 2010 contract. But Chechu Rubiera just confirmed, perhaps unwittingly, that Bruyneel is recruiting for Radio Shack. The story is in VeloNews

Rubiera confirms RadioShack move

José Luís Rubiera wants to retire and work on his golf game, but Lance Armstrong just won’t let him.

The 37-year-old Spaniard confirmed to VeloNews that he will ride with Armstrong at the new RadioShack team for the 2010 season.

“Yes, Johan (Bruyneel )called me and said that Lance wanted me on RadioShack next year,” Rubiera said. “I have a lot of motivation to race one more year with Lance.”

There's a lot of speculation as to whether or not Lance Armstrong will, or even should, race the Tour de France next year. After all the hoopla from the UK Guardian article, he refused to even discuss the subect in an interview in Paris with the International Herald Tribune. He said that the people who own the Tour also run the Criteium International, and he could talk to them there in March.

But perhaps in honor of Thanksgiving, he interacted a bit with his followers on twitter. He said that yes, he does read the @replies. He had mentioned that there was snow on the top of Col St. Roch on his ride this morning. Someone must have asked about that, so he taught himself to twitpic and posted a photo of him with his soigneur, Ryszard, who drives the follow car, on the Col.

He also posted this:

"And yes, I will twitter from the tour, the giro, the ToC, and the TdU. Hell, I seem to be twittering a lot."

It's hardly carved in stone, but it's the first race he mentioned. i think he's going for the Giro/Tour double.  And I hope he wins.

You would not want to contribute to the re-test of blood and urine samples from the past.

 "That is a misunderstanding, I will do.  We are now in the targeted re-test of some cyclists in the Giro and the Tour of Portugal this year. Instead of all those criticisms, the UCI should have appreciation for his anti-doping program.  We have just this year alone eight thousand tests conducted. "

A Google Translation of an interview Pat McQuaid gave to DePers.nl

the original story