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PARIS -- Lance Armstrong believes he can win an eighth Tour de France title, well aware his aging legs are not as strong as they used to be. He is also willing to put such ambitions aside if it means helping teammate Alberto Contador win.
Contador, the 2007 winner, and Armstrong will ride for the Astana team in the three-week race that starts Saturday with a time trial in Monaco. The pairing raises an intriguing question: Can the two Tour de France champions ride together or will their fierce individual agendas divide them?
The 37-year-old Armstrong won the last of his record seven straight Tours in 2005, and his startling comeback has fans worldwide eager to see if he can add to his cycling legend.
"Now it's 2009, not 2004, 2005 or 2001, that's different", Armstrong said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I would love to be eternally young, but I'm not. That's just the reality."
"It's not going to be easy to win," Armstrong added. "In December and January, I thought it would be easier. It ends up being more difficult than I thought. Perhaps because of the crash, of the complicated season or simply because I'm older now."
Armstrong said he would be willing to support Contador if it becomes clear the Spaniard is the likelier rider to win the grueling race.
"Out of respect for him, out of respect for the team and out of respect for the rules of cycling, I would do it with pleasure", Armstrong said by telephone after previewing the 18th stage of the Tour, a time trial in Annecy.
When riders take the start line in Monaco, just one rider -- the 40-year-old Spaniard Inigo Cuesta -- is likely to be older than Armstrong. The Tour's oldest champion is Belgium's Firmin Lambot, who was 36 when he won in 1922.
Armstrong knows the odds are against him, and he would love to prove his doubters wrong.
"They would say that my time has come and gone and that I'm too old, that it's very complicated, that there are other riders now," Armstrong said. "I know those things and you could use those for motivation. I know where I am. I've studied my performances in training very closely, and I'm excited to race. I'm not sure that I can win, but I can tell you that the person who thinks that I get 10th ... he is dead wrong."
Armstrong overcame testicular cancer to win his first Tour in 1999 and finished a creditable 12th place recently in the Giro d'Italia. Still, most regard Contador as favorite for the world's biggest multistage race.
Before the Giro, Armstrong broke his collarbone in a crash during the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon in March. Now he has recovered fully.
"The indication I have in training and the tests that I did tell me that my condition is good," he said. "Maybe not the best of my life, but not too bad."
TOUR DE FRANCE
* When/where: Saturday-July 26 in France. Competition begins with a time trial in Monaco.
* TV: Versus (Ch. 59)
