… no, really, it happened. In Aspen, Colorado. Over the weekend. Lance Armstrong’s (former) friend in question was his former teammate-turned-Benedict Arnold, Tyler Hamilton. From the NY Times:

Hamilton, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist, was on his way to see a friend at the bar when he and Armstrong came face to face, said Chris Manderson, Hamilton’s lawyer. Armstrong threw out his arm to block Hamilton and began berating him, Manderson said.

“Would you feel threatened if someone said to you, ‘We’re going to destroy you on the witness stand and we’re going to make your life a living hell?’ ” Manderson said. “Not a lot of shades of gray there.”

Every story has two sides, though, and a friend of Armstrong’s tells the paper the encounter was significantly less exciting:

Larner said Armstrong and his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, were having tequila drinks at the bar with Larner and two other friends when Hamilton walked by the bar at about 10 p.m. Armstrong stopped him and said, “ ‘Hey, dude,’ in a very sarcastic tone,” and Hamilton, looking shaken, tried to hug Armstrong, Larner said.

Larner said that she did not hear the rest of the conversation, but that Armstrong never left his barstool while he and Hamilton spoke.

A third witness told the paper Armstrong and Hamilton spoke at length, and it wasn’t hostile or “combative.”

Still, the feds, who are going after Armstrong, want to see the security cameras so they can try and determine whether or not witness tampering too place.

The story ends on a comical note: Hamilton is not welcome back in the joint because his posse didn’t tip the waitress. [NYT]