There will have been some tension at the Astana team dinner table after stage seven of the 2009 Tour de France.

For the moment, relations between team-mates and rivals, Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, will remain cordial. “Johan will have to manage the situation,” Armstrong said a couple of days ago, referring to Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel, who must juggle loyalty to his old Texan friend, with the logic that tells us that Alberto Contador is the strongest rider at the Astana team and in this year’s Tour peloton.

On the climb to Arcalis ski station, the truth was outed. Contador is superior to Armstrong. He was quicker than the American in the time-trial in Monaco, faster to the first summit finish. The areas in which Armstrong once dominated — against the clock and in the mountains — are the disciplines in which he has become an also-ran. During his seven-year reign over the Tour, Armstrong asserted his supremacy on two fronts: in time-trials and in summit finishes. Not this year.

So vicious was Contador’s acceleration over the final kilometres of the hairpinned climb to Arcalis, that no other rider was able to respond. Afterwards, Armstrong spoke of the wind, of tactics and strategy, as if this disguised what we had all seen with our own eyes. In truth, all he could do as Contador sped away from him, was watch.

In some ways, Contador’s attack — apparently going against Astana’s defensive tactics — may pave the way for a more interesting race. Others will have experienced the revelation of Armstrong’s vulnerability and riders such as Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck and the unexpected Bradley Wiggins, will now be keen to leapfrog the 37-year-old in the overall standings.

It remains to be seen how Armstrong responds, and such is his strength of character that he should not be written off, but it may take another Lazarus-like effort to prevent the flying Contador from running away with this Tour. The Spaniard’s attack may not have been an act of outright mutiny, but it was almost certainly one of insubordination.