Armstrong welcomes 'open' 2010 yellow jersey battleSeven-times champion Lance Armstrong Lance Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971) is a retired American professional road racing cyclist. He won the Tour de France—cycling's most prestigious race—seven consecutive times, from 1999 to 2005. admitted next year's Tour de France Tour de France World's most prestigious and difficult bicycle race. Staged for three weeks each July—usually in some 20 daylong stages—the Tour typically comprises 20 professional teams of nine riders each and covers some 3,600 km (2,235 miles) of flat and could offer victory opportunities to a bigger field of rivals after the organisers' unveiled the 2010 route on Wednesday. Beginning in Rotterdam on July 3 and ending in Paris July 25, the 97th edition of the world's toughest bike race will cover an approximate total distance of 3,590 kilometres. However in keeping with the organisers' annual bid to innovate, there will be few mountain top finishes, only one individual time trial and no team time trial. Spaniard Alberto Contador Alberto Contador Velasco (born 6 December 1982 in Madrid, Spain) is a professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team and winner of the 2007 Tour de France. While he competes for the overall titles, he is considered a climbing specialist. , who races for Astana, triumphed for the second time in his career in this year's edition in which Armstrong finished third, behind Luxembourg's Andy Schleck Andy Schleck (born June 10, 1985) is a Luxembourgian professional road bicycle racer who, since 2005, has been riding for the Team CSC outfit in the UCI ProTour race series. Andy is the younger brother of Fränk Schleck, whom he rides alongside at Team CSC. . Armstrong and Contador both raced for Astana in 2009 however their cohabitation A living arrangement in which an unmarried couple lives together in a long-term relationship that resembles a marriage. Couples cohabit, rather than marry, for a variety of reasons. They may want to test their compatibility before they commit to a legal union. was far from comfortable. The American has since moved on and will spearhead the Radio Shack See RadioShack. team's yellow jersey bid in 2010. In total there are six full mountain stages in 2010, meaning there will be, at least on paper, plenty of opportunities for attacks. But with only three summit finishes -- and the most difficult sections of climbing in the Pyrenees -- Armstrong hinted that he would be in with a good chance of controlling the threat of Contador. "I think it will be much more open than this year. The TTT "Thought that too." See digispeak. (team time trial) eliminated people (in 2009), and we won't have that again," said Armstrong. "This year we ended up with three or four guys who could have won the Tour, next year we'll be going into the tough sections with 10 guys." Armstrong, who ended his three and a half year retirement last year to come back and compete for the first time since 2005, said he would have to study all the climbs "in detail" before making any pre-race plans. But he hinted that the inclusion of downhill finishes on some of the climbing stages would give him, and others, opportunities to make up time on some of the pure climbers, such as Contador. "There's more downhill finishes, and also more long sections after the climbs. Those stages are almost non-events," added the American. 
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