Tracking Lance Armstrong’s toughest competition

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Alberto Contador is the man generally expected to be the favorite at this summer’s Tour de France cycling race and he also happens to be Lance Armstrong’s Astana teammate. Contador of Spain will face the strongest field of his season so far this year when he takes off March 8 in the prestigious Paris-Nice stage race. Astana’s Levi Leipheimer, who won the Amgen Tour of California for Astana (with Armstrong riding as an assistant), had planned to support Contador in Paris-Nice, but he is sidelined with a fractured sacrum he suffered during the Tour of California.

Leipheimer, Armstrong and Contador are all expected to ride for Astana in the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon March 24-27 in Spain.

-- Diane Pucin