MADRID,  (Reuters) – Tour de France winner Alberto  Contador found the time he spent off the road with Astana team  mate Lance Armstrong tougher than the race itself, the Spaniard  said yesterday.

The 26-year-old picked up his second Tour title in Paris on  Sunday, finishing ahead of Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck and  Armstrong who came third.

“My relationship with Lance Armstrong is zero,” Contador  told a news conference in Madrid, where he was given a hero’s  welcome.

“He is a great rider and has completed a great race but it  is another thing on a personal level, where I have never had  great admiration for him and I never will.

“On this Tour, the days in the hotel were harder than the  those on the road.
“The situation was tense and delicate because the  relationship between myself and Lance extended to the rest of  the staff.”

Contador, publicly criticised by Armstrong for ignoring team  orders during the Tour, refused to be drawn on his future but it  was unlikely to lie with his current team Astana.

“We’ll have to see what happens,” he said. “I don’t know  where I will go but it will clearly be with a team that is 100  percent behind me.”

After being greeted by family, friends and fans at Madrid’s  Barajas airport, Contador was given a victory reception by the  president of Madrid’s regional government in the centre of the  capital.

At every opportunity fans sang the Spanish national anthem  as a reminder to Tour organisers who accidently played the  national anthem of Denmark at the podium ceremony on Sunday.