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With as many as 10 riders slated to start the Tour — including threeteam leaders — this could be a banner July for the U.S.
Lance Armstrong
Hometown: Austin, TX Age: 30
Height: 5 ft. 10 in. Weight: 165 lbs.
Team: U.S. Postal Service Number of Tours: 7
With his well-documented cancer comeback and three consecutive Tourvictories — and the marketing power of Nike — Lance Armstrong has becomean American sports figure on par with Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, anunheard of accomplishment for an American cyclist. And like those othertwo, Armstrong’s season preparation comes under intense scrutiny year afteryear.Preparation has been at the heart of Armstrong’s Tour success, and he’sfollowed a similar program for each of his three wins. However, with anincreased team emphasis on the one-day spring World Cup classics in Europe,the three-time Tour winner took a decided risk in tinkering with that winningTour formula.For the first time in several years, Armstrong added the two BelgianWorld Cups, the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège,to his April racing calendar, to go along with one of his staples, theAmstel Gold Race. There was not undue pressure at those Belgian races,as Armstrong was cast mainly in a worker’s role, but the increased travel— he shuttled between Belgium, his home in Spain, his Ride for the Rosesin Austin and the Netherlands — added to Armstrong’s demanding life. Stillhis presence in the winning breakaway, and fourth-place finish, at AmstelGold seemed to indicate he was on his normal track.Would his foray into the classics diminish Armstrong’s preparation?Only the Tour will tell, but once April was done, it was back to the winningformula, with intense training camps, mountain-stage reconnaissance inFrance, and finally, a return to racing at the Midi Libre stage race inlate May.
George Hincapie
Hometown: Greenville, SC Age: 29
Height:: 6 ft. 3 in. Weight:: 170 lbs.
Team: U.S. Postal Service Number of Tours: 7In the early part of each season, the U.S. Postal Service team is centeredon Hincapie. He’s the team’s best sprinter and its one-day race specialist,flashing the bling-bling and the backward Oakleys through the importantspring classics season, specifically at the Tour of Flanders, Ghent-Wevelgemand Paris-Roubaix in early April.Hincapie’s talent is obvious in those races, leaving many casual observersto ask, what happens to him at the Tour?Indeed, as recently as 1998, Hincapie could be found among the othersprinters, battling for stage wins and intermediate bonuses. That yearhe had two top-four finishes, and a long breakaway in the first week nearlyput him in the yellow jersey.In 1999, though, things changed with the return of Armstrong to theTour. Since that time, the Postal team has been built to work exclusivelyfor the Texan at the Tour. It’s a role that Hincapie has adapted to well.A team leader in April, Hincapie becomes Armstrong’s valuable right-handman in July, giving everything he’s got to put his American teammate inyellow by Paris.After winning Ghent-Wevelgem in 2001, Hincapie came up short this yearat the classics, finishing fourth at the Tour of Flanders, third at Wevelgemand sixth at Paris-Roubaix. But that won’t stop him from settling intohis job in July.
Christian Vande Velde
Hometown: Boulder, CO Age: 26
Height:: 6 ft. Weight:: 150
Team: U.S. Postal Service Number of Tours: 2At just 26 years old, Vande Velde is already one of the mainstays ofthe Postal squad, now in his fifth year as a pro with the team. With histime-trialing talent and strength in the flats to the low mountains, VandeVelde has the tools to be a key cog in the Postal machine, something hedemonstrated in Armstrong’s first win in 1999.Since then, the Boulder resident has suffered nothing but bad luck atthe Tour, missing the start in 2000 with an infected spider bite and thencrashing out of the race on stage 7 last year.Vande Velde began the 2002 season well, riding into shape and then havinghis usual solid classics season. And after two bad Julys in a row, he’llbe looking to reprise the key role he played in 1999.
Chann McRae
Hometown: Austin, TX Age: 30
Height:: 5 ft. 9 in. Weight:: 140 lbs.
Team: U.S. Postal Service Number of Tours: 1McRae’s star began to rise quickly when he jumped from the Americandomestic Saturn team to the then world No. 1 Mapei-Quick Step team in 1999.Although he had ridden the Vuelta a España in 1996 with a low-budgetSpanish team, McRae didn’t get another taste of a big-time tour until that’99 season, when he rode both the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta with Mapei.He finished 19th overall in Spain and followed that up with a fifth placeat the world road race championship.The following year McRae made Mapei’s Tour team, but arrived at thestart exhausted after he was called upon to ride the Giro in May as well.He abandoned after a crash on stage 12.The Texan’s Tour status was in doubt after a crash at Four Days of Dunkirkin May resulted in a fractured arm. McRae didn’t miss much time, though.He was only off his bike for two days, and if he’s picked for the team,his hard work in the mountains will not go unnoticed.
Tyler Hamilton
Hometown: Marblehead, MA Age: 29
Height:: 5 ft. 8 in. Weight:: 140 lbs.
Team: CSC-Tiscali Number of Tours: 5The last of the original riders on the U.S. Postal Service team, Hamiltonfinally cut those ties when he signed with the Danish CSC-Tiscali teamfor 2002 before the end of last year’s Tour de France. Hamilton has beenon the start line for Postal for all five of the team’s Tour participations.In that time, he’s seen the squad go from a curiosity to the dominant outfitin the Tour peloton with Armstrong’s three straight wins.In his supporting role for Armstrong, Hamilton has shown off all thephysical tools needed to be a team leader, setting the pace for Armstrongon some of the most difficult mountain stages and turning in outstandingtime trial results (1998: 2nd, stage 7; 1999: 3rd, stage 19; 2000: 4th,stage 19). In fact, Hamilton often established the split times that Armstrongwould key off during the Tour’s time trials.Now the co-leader for CSC (along with Laurent Jalabert and Carlos Sastre),Hamilton will have a team working for him this time, and if all goes well,he could be battling against Postal in late July. If he is, the originalPostie will be a thorn in the side, as well as a source of pride, for hisformer team.
Levi Leipheimer
Hometown: Santa Rosa, CA Age: 28
Height:: 5 ft. 7 in. Weight:: 138
Team: Rabobank Number of Tours: 0A year ago, if you had mentioned Levi Leipheimer’s name as a potentialoverall contender for the Tour de France, you probably would have beengreeted with a quizzical look, and then maybe a dismissive pffft.That, of course, was before Leipheimer’s stunning grand tour debut atlast year’s Vuelta a España, where he finished third overall, behindAngel Casero and Oscar Sevilla, and outrode Postal’s team leader RobertoHeras. Ask Leipheimer, though, and he’ll tell you that he knew it all along.He knew that he had the time-trialing ability, which he showed againwith a fourth-place finish at the world time trial championship in October.He also knew that he had the climbing ability to podium at a major tour,something that he didn’t really get a chance to show with the Postal teamuntil last year’s Vuelta.Leipheimer’s performance in Spain, though, left no doubt, and the DutchRabobank team was quick to snatch him up and sign him to a contract. Fora team that has had a lot of stage success but never a great GC showing,Leipheimer could be just the man. Seriously.
Fred Rodriguez
Hometown: Emeryville, CA Age: 28
Height:: 5 ft. 10 in. Weight:: 147 lbs.
Team: Domo-Farm Frites Number of Tours: 2In 2001 Rodriguez struggled in the early season and was left off ofDomo’s spring classics squad. He did have some good performances in lesserraces, and then seemed to be coming on again in June, when he won his secondstraight U.S. title in Philadelphia. But when the Tour began, a stomachvirus upset his final preparations and Rodriguez struggled, eventuallydropping out on stage 13.This year, the Californian seemed to be on the right path from the beginning.His early-season preparation went well, as demonstrated by his fine formduring the classics, where he was second at Milan-San Remo and second atGhent-Wevelgem. Rodriguez hopes his Tour will mirror his spring seasonagain, but this time for the good.If it does, he may return to the performance level of 2000, his Tourdebut. That year, he was key in setting up then teammates Tom Steels andStefano Zanini for stage wins, and came close to winning one himself. Thiscould be the year he does.
Kevin Livingston
Hometown: Austin, TX Age: 29
Height:: 6 ft. Weight:: 155 lbs.
Team: Telekom Number of Tours: 5A year ago, a lot was made of Livingston’s switch from the Postal teamof Armstrong to the Telekom team of Armstrong’s closest rival, Jan Ullrich.Livingston, though, was unaffected by the hubbub, demonstrating the professionalismand dedication that made him such a key acquisition. During the 2001 Tour,Livingston was right by Ullrich’s side when he was needed in the high mountains,although the German fell short of his second Tour victory.When Ullrich announced on May 7 that he would be skipping the Tour becauseof a knee injury, the Telekom team’s usual game plan went out the window.But whoever is leading the men in pink come July, one thing is certain:Livingston will be a key component.
Bobby Julich
Hometown: Reno, NV Age: 30
Height:: 6 ft. Weight:: 150 lbs.
Team: Telekom Number of Tours: 5Since 1998 when he placed third at the Tour behind Marco Pantani andJan Ullrich, there’s been a lot of pressure on Bobby Julich to duplicatehis success. But in the following year with Cofidis, when he crashed outin the Metz time trial, and the next two years with Crédit Agricole,he was never able to approach that 1998 success.This year, Julich has joined former Cofidis teammate Kevin Livingstonon Telekom. With Ullrich pulling out of the Tour, Julich’s new role wasn’timmediately clear, but with the spotlight aimed elsewhere, the change inscenery may be just what Julich needs to reignite his Tour spark.
Jonathan Vaughters
Hometown: Denver, CO Age: 29
Height:: 5 ft. 11 in. Weight:: 135 lbs.
Team: Crédit Agricole Number of Tours: 3Each year, it seems, Vaughters makes it a little farther in the Tour,but the talented Colorado climber has yet to see the finish in Paris. In1998, a crash eliminated him before the race even started. In ’99, he wasout by stage 2. And in 2000, he crashed yet again, this time on the firstmountain stage of the Tour. Last year it looked like Vaughters was finallyout of the woods after he made it through all of the Tour’s mountains,but a freak accident — an allergic reaction to a wasp sting — put him outbefore the finish.At least Vaughters got through the mountains, and he liked what he saw.He also showed that he has the potential to climb with the very best.