It is now clear that this Tour de France will be played out in three acts. The first took the riders along the Mediterranean and through the Pyrenees. The second, after Monday’s rest day in Limoges, will traverse the centre of France and then loop towards the Swiss border. Then, after a second rest day, the final scenes in the drama will be played out in the Alps and climax on one of the greatest stages of all, the steep flanks of Mont Ventoux.

For the moment, very little has been decided. There have perhaps been tell-tale signs, both of strength and weakness on the part of the leading contenders. Yet, like most Tours, this race is about a gradual wearing down process, as fatigue, mental and physical, takes its toll. That process will come to a head in the Alps.

For the time being, then, the next ‘showdown’ may well be between the leading teams and riders, the Tour organisation and the International Cycling Union (UCI) who are all at loggerheads over Tuesday’s proposed radio ban.

The radio ban has been agreed for two stages in this year’s Tour in a bid to assess how influential in-race telecommunications have become. Armstrong, a firm believer in the short-wave radio system now so prevalent in cycling, has even used it to take instructions from a coach watching a live television feed of the Tour.

"I don't agree with it [the radio ban]," the Texan said. "The race evolves, the bikes evolve, everything evolves. The cameras have evolved, the microphones have evolved and suddenly we are going to go back to a situation where directors will have to ride up into the peloton to give orders to riders — that is not a good thing."

"I remember those days, I have been around long enough to remember them. A few of the riders think it is a cute idea, but I don't. And the Tour de France is not the place to experiment — if you want to roll something out, do it some place else, not on the Tour."

Armstrong’s comments were supported by his Astana team manager, Johan Bruyneel. "I don't think any argument justifies the decision to ban radios,” the Belgian said. A rider protest on Tuesday's start line now appears inevitable.

Others were equally dismissive, with 1996 Tour champion Bjarne Riis, now manager of the Saxo Bank team, describing the ban as “too romantic.”

“They want to be nostalgic,” he said of those who support the ban, “But come on, it’s 2009.”

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