Their rivalry is well-documented after both raced for Astana last season, with Bruyneel as their sporting director. Armstrong, whose seven Tour wins came under Bruyneel's management before both men joined RadioShack, eventually succumbed to his Spanish teammate, who won his second title.
Bruyneel believes Andy and Frank Schleck and Bradley Wiggins can only gain "an advantage" from a Armstrong-Contador focus come the grueling July 3-25 race.
"I think it's wrong to look at it that way because it only provides the other contenders with an advantage," Bruyneel said at the Vuelta de Murcia on Friday.
"There's no point in going on about Contador-Armstrong because we only spend more energy on that, and that just helps the others." Armstrong maintains Wiggins is the clear favorite in Murcia after Friday's 166.5-kilometer third stage. The Texan admitted he had "suffered like a dog" on the punishing grade-1 mountain climb up the Alto de Espuna.
Luke Roberts of Milram won Friday's stage with a time of 4 hours, 16 minutes, 47 seconds while Armstrong and Wiggins were both five seconds back of overall leader Josep Jufre of Astana going into Saturday's time-trial.
The 38-year-old Armstrong dropped 30 meters (98 feet) back of the leading group before eventually catching.
"I didn't expect to be near the front because I haven't focused on the climbing and still need to lose some weight," said Armstrong, who needed over 30 minutes to give an anti-doping sample afterward.
"But the sensations were good. To be on the same time as the favorite is a good sign for me. I did that climb years ago and was not anywhere near the front." Wiggins said Murcia was important for getting a sense of where Armstrong was in his training.
"You do all the things you would do if it was the Tour de France, riding with the same mindset," Wiggins said. "For me, coming here and trying to pick up some results is good for the morale." Like Armstrong, Wiggins said that Saturday's time trial would be important for the season ahead where Armstrong has already pinpointed the Schlecks and Wiggins as Tour candidates.
"All sports need people, need personalities - it's sort of what makes the world goes round," Armstrong said. "I think we're starting to see in cycling the evolution of other stars, which is good."
Contador is one of the sport's biggest stars but he developed an acrimonious relationship with Armstrong after the riders fell out over the Astana No. 1 tag last year.
Despite the well-publicized problems, throngs of supporters have turned up at the Team RadioShack bus for a photo or autograph of Armstrong, who posted on his Twitter page: "Muchas gracias to the people for the support here.
I must say though, I'm a little surprised by it!" "I've been in Spain a long time racing, even back to my amateur days - it's been 20 years. So maybe the people have an appreciation for that and I think they obviously like their riders," Armstrong explained. "I just stay quiet, stay out of their way, let them cheer for whoever they want to cheer for and avoid the drama."
