THE BEST OF 2009: Lance Armstrong's comeback

"Mont Ventoux does not like Lance Armstrong," said the seven-time Tour de France winner in an ominous declaration of both respect and trepidation in 2002.

MASTER AND APPRENTICE: Lance Armstrong spent the Tour de France in the slipstream of Astana team-mate Alberto Contador (Getty Images)

The Ventoux - the Bald Mountain - and according to French philosopher Roland Barthes ‘a god of evil, a despot of cyclists' was to be where the 2009 Tour was won and lost.

In fact, the penultimate stage of this year's Tour, the lung-busting slog up the 2000ft tall peak, merely reinforced Alberto Contador as the maillot jaune but it scribed a new chapter in the remarkable career of the [then] 37-year-old from Texas.

The Ventoux stands alone in more ways than one.

There is nothing else higher for many miles around.  The barren landscapes that surround the summit are visible some 65 miles away.

And it is one peak, with few hairpins for respite and with the treacherous Mistral to contend with, that bows to no man. 

Prior to his 2009 excursion, Armstrong had never won a stage there despite two visits in his seven-year dominance around L'Hexagone.

In 2000 he battled Marco Pantani all the way to the summit before allowing the Italian to take the stage victory - something he subsequently admitted to regretting - and in 2002 he suffered again.

But it was on his ascent of the Ventoux in 2009 that Armstrong marvelled, just as much as he did between 1999 and 2005.

Armstrong's comeback to the Tour, after a four-year absence, understandably commanded attention.

His leadership rivalry with Contador at his Kazakh team Astana provided the perfect amphitheatre for Armstrong to either prove he still dined with cycling's immortals or show to the world he was finished.

On the Tour's first visit to the Alps, Contador expunged all doubt as to who was prince of the peleton - it was not so much the manner in which he beat Armstrong, but to see the Texan admit defeat was a sight I, for one, never thought we'd see.

And so, having been reduced to a mere Tour mortal for the first time in more than a decade, to see Armstrong drag his ageing body up the Ventoux and clinging onto third place, keeping an exceptional challenge from Great Britain's Bradley Wiggins at bay, was a sight to behold.

The American did not win the stage and Contador was a country mile ahead of him but while Armstrong did not win the war, the Ventoux was a personal battle he won.

The sight of an athlete in his prime, making a mockery out of a physical and mental challenge, unfathomable for us mere mortals is one thing and Contador's graceful pedalling was just as aesthetically pleasing as was Armstrong's in his pomp.

But for Armstrong, his infamous competitive spirit ablaze, to return to the Tour and conquer the Ventoux - the blood, sweat and tears, plain for all to see - is quite another.

Indeed Wiggins, desperately clinging to the demonic Armstrong during his ascent of the Ventoux was almost equally as captivating.   

Wiggins' refusal to be excluded from the race's elite ensured he equalled Robert Millar's best finish by a Brit as he came home fourth - establishing himself as a world class road cyclist and proving a lot to many - most of all himself.