LANCE ARMSTRONG, the American cyclist who won the Tour de France for a record seven times before retiring last year, is facing a wave of Gallic outrage today after describing the French football team as “assholes”.

The comment has provoked indignation in France, adding to the strain on Franco-American relations. Armstrong, 34 — who seems to enshrine everything that the French dislike about the US — joined his former team-mates in the French Alps on Monday and said he would follow today’s leg of the Tour in a car. French commentators said that the atmosphere was likely to be electric.

The state-owned radio station France Info described his presence as a provocation, and the newspaper France Soir greeted his arrival with the front-page headline “Welcome in France, Trouduc” — short for trou du cul (asshole).

Armstrong had been making a jocular reference to the head-butt that resulted in the French football captain Zinédine Zidane — a national hero — being sent off in the World Cup final. The tabloid said that the reference was unpardonable.

Armstrong had slighted the honour of the vanquished Bleus and indeed of the French nation, France Soir said, adding for good measure that he was a friend of President Bush.

Asked about it in an interview last night, Armstrong replied: “It was a joke. You don’t understand.” Then he walked off camera.

The Texan — who claims to be the victim of a smear campaign in France after being accused by the newspaper L’Équipe of using performance-enhancing drugs — had been speaking during a sporting awards ceremony for the ESPN television channel in Los Angeles last week. “All their players have tested positive for being assholes,” he said.

Afterwards he said he had toned down his usual language for public consumption. “If they’d heard me at home, they’d know that was a step down.”

Johan Bruyneel, the manager of Armstrong’s old team, Discovery Channel, said the remark had been intended as humorous “but the sense of humour is not the same everywhere”.

The controversy has fuelled acrimony between Armstrong and the country where he achieved greatness after recovering from cancer to win every Tour from 1999 to 2005.

The allegations of drug abuse — denied vigorously by Armstrong — brought a vitriolic response in France, where he had long been viewed with suspicion, partly because of his nationality and partly because of his dominance on les routes du Tour. Armstrong said that the Tour de France organisers had never liked him. “They were happy to see me go.”

Yesterday he said he had decided to visit the race known as la Grande Boucle after the doping scandal that prevented his old rivals Jan Ullrich, of Germany and Ivan Basso, of Italy, from competing in this year’s event.

“I think that now is the time that fans of cycling have to stand up and say ‘I’m a fan’.

“I want to come and I want to be supportive, not just of the team, not just of the race, but of the sport of cycling, which to me is still the most beautiful sport there is,” he said.

However, his presence was a reminder of what The Tour is lacking this year, according to Le Monde. The race needed un patron capable of leading the other riders towards the final leg on the Champs Elysées on Sunday, it said.

“It’s not easy for anyone to shed old habits after years of absolute power for the American master, the greatest dictator la Grande Boucle has ever known.”

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