Lance Armstrong is already America's greatest cyclist and with Saturday's start of the 2003 Tour de France he begins his quest to join the sport's deities.

With four Tour victories behind him, the 31-year-old Texan will straddle his high-tech bicycle in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and chase one of sport's most enduring records.

American Sweep?

There's an interesting plot twist in what's become a somewhat routine ending during Armstrong's reign. Two other Americans -- Tyler Hamilton and Levi Leipheimer -- start this year's Tour with legitimate chances of finishing on the top-three final podium, still considered a prestigious honor in cycling. With Armstrong's dominance unquestioned, Leipheimer and Hamilton will be throwing everything into gaining the podium, perhaps delivering the first American sweep of the Tour's top spots. Both are former Armstrong teammates who left their captain to have chances to lead their respective teams. And both have the experience of finishing among the best in major stage races. Hamilton won a stage and finished second in last year's Giro d'Italia while Leipheimer was third in the 2001 Vuelta a España. Leipheimer rides for the Dutch Rabobank team and finished an impressive eighth in his Tour debut last year, the best by an American since Lemond finished third in his first Tour back in 1984. "I want to be better than last year," says Leipheimer, 29, from Santa Clara, Calif. "I learned that last year a lot of little things can add up and make a big difference. I got stronger as the race went on, so I want to improve on that." A solid all-rounder, Hamilton is considered a solid bet for the final podium. In April, Hamilton, from Marblehead, Mass., became the first American to win the prestigious one-day Liége-Bastogne-Liége race in Belgium and then won the Tour of Romandie stage race the next week in Switzerland. "I've never been in the top-10 in the Tour, so I'll start with that. If I can be better, great, but I'm not putting so much pressure on myself," said Hamilton, 32. "I need to set realistic goals and go from there. If I have a great race and everything clicks and the form is where it's capable of being, maybe I can even do better. I have to wait and see on the road. I also prefer to talk with my legs." -- Andrew Hood

Only four men have won what's called sport's most grueling event five times. Three weeks, Europe's steepest mountains, determined rivals and more than 2,000 miles of asphalt stand between Armstrong and history.

"Call me a favorite, but don't say it's as if I've already won the Tour," said Armstrong, who arrived to Paris with fanfare Wednesday afternoon. "It's not that simple. It will be three really hard weeks."

Armstrong's victory last year pushed him ahead of three-time Tour winner Greg Lemond as America's greatest racer. Now he's narrowing in on the elite five-win club.

Only French riders Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, Belgian Eddy Merckx and Spanish rider Miguel Indurain have won the magical fifth Tour.

Indurain holds the distinction of winning five straight, a mark Armstrong's poised to match if he can survive the 20-stage chess match on wheels and roll onto the Champs Elysées on July 27 wearing the famed yellow jersey.

"My first priority is to win again. If that means I am tying a record, breaking a record, I'll be honored. I am trying to take this year to year," said Armstrong, who looks tanned and fit. "I'll count when I'm finished."

All indications show Armstrong is in winning form. He brushed off a rare race crash last month en route to winning a stage and defending his title at the Dauphiné Libéré race in the French Alps in what was his Tour dress rehearsal.

Armstrong spent the past two weeks training at altitude high in the Swiss Alps to hone his form.

Armstrong's experienced U.S. Postal Service team is ready to push their man toward victory. Nicknamed the "Blue Train," Armstrong's teammates will fetch water bottles, chase down dangerous breakaways, help block the wind and sacrifice their chances for victory to help ease the way for Armstrong.

Seven of the eight riders from last year's dominant team are back. Newcomer Manuel Beltran, a rail-thin Spanish climber, was brought on to give Armstrong extra firepower in the mountains.

Determined rivals
Standing between Armstrong and the history books is a determined wall of rivals who want to bring down the American.

Challengers include 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich, a German rider on Team Bianchi, back from two knees surgeries and a racing ban after he tested positive for the party drug ecstasy last year.

Ullrich is the only other Tour winner starting this year's Tour and Armstrong says the German is the only racer who truly gives him a challenge.

2002 runner-up Joseba Beloki, a Spanish rider on the ONCE team, promises to do what he's never been able to do and attack Armstrong in the mountains.

Others looking to topple Armstrong include two-time Giro d'Italia champion Gilberto Simoni, an Italian on the Saeco team, and Santiago Botero, a Colombian on the Telekom team who won two stages and finished last year.

Despite what's become an annual tradition among Tour challengers of bashing Armstrong, no one really believes Armstrong will be beaten.

"We're not building toward toppling Lance. Unless he has a bad day, no one can touch Lance. He's at the top of his game," said Sean Yates, a former teammate who's now sport director at rival Team CSC. "He just gets better and stronger every year."

Tough, historic course
If Armstrong's charge toward a fifth victory wasn't enough, this year's Tour is also celebrating the centenary of cycling's most important stage race.

The French will probably be crying in their café au lait as this year's Tour is loaded with fanfare, ceremonies and pomp and circumstance that they hold so dear. The first Tour was held in 1903, but the race missed 10 years due to lapses during World War I and II.

The combination of Armstrong's dominance and the Tour's celebrations makes for what could be a classic edition.

This year's 21-stage, 2,084-mile course is loosely based on the inaugural route back in 1903, hitting six of the original host cities and many of the famous climbs from the pages of the Tour history books.

On paper, the Tour looks more balanced than last year's when all the mountain stages were packed into the final week. Observers are saying this year's Tour - with shorter time trials and less summit finishes - could make for a closer race as well.

After Saturday's opening prologue under the Eiffel Tower, the tower winds east of Paris for a series of relatively flat transition stages. Stage 4 serves up the exciting team time trial, when nine-man teams ride in formation against the clock.

The Tour hits the Alps a little sooner than usual, with the Tour's longest day coming at Stage 7 in what's sure to be an epic, decisive stage. After hitting the 19-mile climb up the Télégraphe -Galibier climb to the Tour's high point of 8,677 feet and then finishes atop the punishing switchbacks to Alpe d'Huez.

The first of two individual time trials, when riders head out on the course one at a time in a race against the clock, comes after the Alps, perhaps giving the climbing specialists an edge against the superior Armstrong.

The Tour loops southward toward a quartet of exciting stages in the Pyrénées. Stages 13 features a brutal new climb while Stage 15 could tip the balance, with the 10.5-mile climb up the steep Col de Tourmalet followed by the even steeper 8.3-mile climb to Luz Ardiden.

The Tour heads back to Paris for the finale. The course will start in Ville d'Avray, where the 1903 ended, and conclude as it has every year since 1975, on the cobbles of the famed Champs Elysées.

Andrew Hood is an American freelance journalist based in Spain and has covered every Tour since 1996.