That other hot American

In his first race appearance of the year, the 32-year-old New Englander stormed to second place over a hilly time-trial course at Paris-Nice. He then bettered that performance by launching a gutsy solo dash to steal victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège – a race that his former team-mate Armstrong has always wanted to win.

The four-time Tour champ finished runner-up in both 1994 and 1996, but Hamilton is the only American ever to take top honours at the 89-year-old super classic.

48 hours later, he was back in the saddle in Switzerland, en route to the overall win in the weeklong Tour of Romandy.

Before joining the Danish CSC formation in 2002, Hamilton was Armstrong's right-hand man on the U.S. Postal squad. Review any mountain stage of the 1999 Tour de France.

Whenever the road went up, Hamilton materialized at the front, controlling the race and setting the pace for Armstrong. Hamilton's job was to read Armstrong's intentions; to know if his leader had found his groove and then catapult him to the finish. Despite repeatedly throwing himself into oxygen debt in the best interests of Armstrong, Hamilton finished the 1999 race a respectable 13th overall.

For 2003, Hamilton is the ultimate insider. He is privy to Armstrong's racing style and training secrets. But after then riding for the now-retired Laurent Jalabert at CSC, tthis year – for the first time in his career – Hamilton will be riding for himself.

"You know, I have done the Tour 6 times but I have never focused on it really 100% for myself," he told Eurosportnews. "If I can go in there with a 100% form, you know, top condition and give it a 110%, I'll be happy. Where that puts me at the end, we'll see."

The CSC team is built for the Tour de France. 1996 winner Bjarne Riis has banded together a collection of climbing aces and powerful pace makers – notably Carlos Sastre, Andrea Peron and Peter Luttenberger.

The seemingly unassuming Danish team posted the best splits at every time check of the all-important team-trial last year – until Michael Sandstod pulled up with a flat tire. After a fatal moment of hesitation, the team cut its effort wait for Sandstod, missing out on a stage win that would have lofted Laurent Jalabert into the overall lead.

The team roster for the 2003 Tour de France is just as strong, and a rocket team-time-trial performance could put Hamilton in yellow, so mark July 9 on your calendar. That's the day of the stage 4 team time-trial.

Riis – the Danish cyclist who beat Miguel Indurain off a five-year Tour de France throne in 1996 - knows about three-week races. And so does Tyler now. Riding with a broken collarbone, Hamilton finished second at the 2002 Giro d'Italia.

He credits it to Riis's know-how. Over the past winter, Riis further refined the American's regimen to focus on early-season confidence-boasting results - such as Liège - and then ample rest for a top performance come Tour time.

"Last year was a big learning experience for me and I think that I'm still learning how to be a leader," Hamilton told us. "I believe you always can become better."

So will Hamilton now trounce Armstrong at the Tour de France? Probably not.

"Lance is still the clear-cut favourite," Hamilton told the American cycling magazine VeloNews. "It hasn't been even close. Even second-place the past four years hasn't been closer than five minutes."

Hamilton may be the United States' top performer in 2003, but that is in part because Lance Armstrong doesn't race much before July. The U.S. Postal leader measures every day and every effort to culminate in victory at the Tour de France.

But like Tour captains Eddy Merckx and, most recently, Miguel Indurain before him, Lance Armstrong will someday falter. "He is human, and therefore he can be beaten," Hamilton said in an interview with France's Velo Magazine.

An Armstrong-Hamilton showdown? Perhaps.

It all starts with Eurosport TV's exclusive live coverage of the teams presentation outside the Paris City Hall Friday evening from 19:00 cet. Follow complete start-to-finish coverage of every stage beginning with Saturday's prologue below the Eiffel Tower starting at 15:30 cet right here on eurosport.com.