Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has refused to engage in a war of words with Alberto Contador after the Spaniard accused him of intimidation during their time as teammates.

The American, who won seven Tour de France titles in a row between 1999 and 2005 before being stripped of them in 2012 for doping offences, came out of retirement in 2009 and went to the Tour as a part of the Astana team alongside Contador.

Armstrong rolled into Paris in third place - a position he would later be stripped of - as his Spanish teammate won his second Tour title, but it was reported there were underlying tensions throughout the three weeks as to who was the leader of the team.

Contador, who retired in 2017, was recently interviewed by YouTube vlogger Valentí Sanjuan and accused Armstrong of telling him 'don't f*** with me' during the 2009 edition of the Tour.

Armstrong referred to the comments on an Instagram Live video, but was not keen to fuel the debate.

He said: "There was a little buzz in the cycling world about a recent interview that Alberto Contador did and I've been asked a lot to comment on this.

"But there's really no comment. What I will say, and I guess this is a comment, and so I will say, is that the best man won in 2009.

"The last I checked it's mid-April 2020 and life is always about being forward and it's not reverse or neutral, so I have no desire to go back and try to figure out who picked fights on the bus, who got wheels. It doesn’t matter, the best man won the race and it wasn't me. So I’ll end it with that."

Armstrong went on to ride the 2010 Tour de France and finished 23rd, while Contador won a third Tour de France.

Both riders' results at the 2010 edition were retrospectively removed from the record books for doping offences.

Contador won a total of seven Grand Tours in his career and is one of only seven riders in history to have won the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta Espana.