During Stage 13 Phil Liggett said there was "no love lost" between Armstrong and Mcewen. And that Discovery Channel might speed up the pace near the end just to prevent Mcewen from getting the win. However, we all know Mcewen did win the stage.

Question: Is there some history between Armstrong and Mcewen causing some sort of rivalry?

I think McEwen has to be among the least popular riders in the whole peloton, partly for dirty tactics, partly for his showboat attitude.

I have been doing some googling came up with this:

It was during the 2002 Tour de France that Australian Robbie McEwen was moved to say to Lance Armstrong: "Shut your mouth, or I will fill it with my fist."

https://www.theage.com.au/text/articl...?oneclick=true

Nothing like some fist pie to give you some energy.

sorry the link did not go through correctly.

https://www.theage.com.au/text/articl...321939337.html

Open up a new browser then select "copy shortcut" and paste the above link. If you click the link directly it will trigger a registration page.

hmm..Interesting, nice read.

Excellent.

Maybe not now, maybe not even in 2002 ... but there was definitely a time when Lance deserved someone saying that to him.

Yeah McEwen is well respected for being such a fabulous sprinter, but at various times in the past he's been a bit of a punk- which is not to say that in the 2002 instance he wasn't right to have said what he said to Armstrong- I really don't know. I get the impression that he's mellowed a tiny bit in the last year or two, but controversy does still surround him at times, as in his Tour DQ 10 days ago. I have a more favourable impression of him now- and boy, can he sprint...

You couldn't be more wrong.

woah, that was quick!

Grrrrrr...........

I've NEVER, EVER, EVER seen this so-called cockiness in any McEwen interview EVER, nor have I ever heard any "tosser" stories about him

That pointing thing he did was obviously just mocking Boonen in a brief moment of excitment.

I'm not being jingoistic; if I thought he was a wanker, I would say so

When a bloke is nearly moved to tears in a post-race press conference when talking about the amount of work his team did for him that day, you get a pretty good idea of his personality.

After the stage you mentioned, Robbie said (in French to a French reporter), "I am the man" and "There is no one faster than me". I'm not hating on Robbie, I'm a big fan, but I did cringe when I heard someone mention those comments he made.