Lance Armstrong is smaller but stronger than when he emerged from retirement 12 months ago, a fact welcomed by the man who engineered his seven Tour de France victories.

Johan Bruyneel, who guided Armstrong to successive Tour wins between 1999 and 2005, and currently runs his U.S.-based Radioshack team, says it's good to see less of Armstrong this year.

"The biggest difference that people see (in Armstrong) is he's a lot smaller, his upper body is very different," Bruyneel said Sunday.

"At the end of 2008, when he started to train again, he was a retired athlete who wanted to stay in shape, stay fit, and he did a lot of different disciplines.

"One of them was weightlifting. It makes you look good at the beach, but it's not for the best for a bike rider. Since he started to race, he (hasn't) lifted weights any more, but of course losing muscle takes a long time."

Armstrong finished 25th overall in the Tour Down Under on Sunday and has repeatedly stated he is lighter and stronger than in January 2009 when he made the Australian race first stop in a comeback to cycling.

He finished 29th in Australia last year and went on to place third in the Tour de France.

Lance Armstrong (Team RadioShack) leaner and meaner for 2010. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.

"Lance is good, he's a lot different (to) last year, physically his form is a lot better, he feels good in the bunch and he feels good in the team," Bruyneel said. "So that's three things that are a lot better than last year.

"He feels a lot better on the bike, so all good."

Bruyneel was also happy with the race debut in Australia of Team Radioshack. The team failed to win a stage of the Tour Down Under but managed to guide Belgian sprinter Gert Steegmans into fourth place on general classification.

"For our team (winning a stage) was not a goal. There's nobody in the team who has really prepared specifically for this race other than being in good shape," Bruyneel said. "I'm happy with the way the team worked together, we saw a few good things."