Tour De France: Armstrong Says French Footballers of Being 'assholes'

Lance Armstrong may be in for an interesting reception next week when he returns to the Tour de France, having apparently insulted France's soccer team by saying: 'All their players tested positive... for being assholes.'

Armstrong's relationship with the French has become strained, with his persistent contention that they did not like him winning their flagship event seven times and the allegations in the French press last August that the banned blood booster erythropoietin had been found in his urine samples from the 1999 Tour.

French sports fans have voted him well up the standings in polls to find the country's least popular sportsman.

Insulting the heroes of the World Cup, even in jest, is hardly likely to improve matters.

Armstrong apparently made the quip in his prerecorded speech for tonight's ESPY awards, the annual gong-fest of cable TV channel ESPN.

He then confirmed what he had said to the Los Angeles Daily Times, stating: 'If they'd lived with me and heard me at home, they'd know it was a step down.'