American Spokesman

PARIS -- There will be a Lance-buster one of these years.

Lance Armstrong, the 31-year-old bicycle racer from Plano, Texas, can’t win every Tour de France.

It might be age that finally knocks Armstrong off the lead. Or an upset stomach or a head cold. Maybe a bad fall in the rain or a tumble over an ill-placed cobblestone.

Maybe even another racer.

This is the 100th anniversary of the first Tour and the race begins today with a 4.03-mile sprint starting at the Eiffel Tower and ending back at a nearby park. This race against the clock is more ceremonial than competitive and Armstrong, winner of four consecutive Tours, will start 198th, last, in honor of his being the defending champion.

On July 27, after 23 days of racing more than 2,100 miles, through seven grueling mountain stages, in the cold of the Alps and the heat of the Mediterranean, Armstrong, of the U.S. Postal Service team, is expected to do what only one other man, Spanish legend Miguel Indurain, has done -- win his fifth consecutive title.

Three other men -- Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil of France and Eddy Merckx of Belgium -- have won five times non-consecutively.

“Lance Armstrong has won four Tours in a row,” said Joseba Beloki, a Spanish rider for Team Once. “He starts as the big favorite. But his reign will end one day. When it does, it might as well be me.”

Beloki was runner-up to Armstrong last year and third in 2000 and 2001. If there is one man considered most likely to topple Armstrong, it is the 29-year-old from the cycling-crazy Basque region of Spain.

His Once team has been criticized in previous years for riding too conservatively. But Beloki said at a Friday news conference that caution is not the plan this year.

“The time has come to make more risks and go for victory,” Beloki said. “I’ve been third and also second and now I would like to be No. 1.”

Santiago Botero of Colombia, a strong racer against the clock who beat Armstrong in last year’s first time trial, switched to Germany’s Team Telekom with the hope of gaining more help in the mountain stages.

Recent Giro d’Italia winner Gilberto Simoni of Italy and 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich of Germany, who is returning to the race after a year’s absence because of a series of injuries and a drug ban, are also counted as possible threats to Armstrong.

Also, two Americans who have ridden alongside Armstrong in the past have hopes of making it a U.S. podium sweep.

Tyler Hamilton, 32, is the lead rider for Danish Team CSC and Levi Leipheimer, 29, from Santa Clara, who finished eighth last year in his first Tour, is No. 1 for the Dutch Rabobank team.

Hamilton, who has never finished in the top 10, won a stage last year, but he was recovering from a cracked shoulder and not in his best racing form. This year, healthy, Hamilton said that “I just want to be in position to ride my best. I’d rather not predict places. I’d rather just talk with my riding.”

Already this year, Hamilton became the first U.S. rider to win the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege race, proving to himself that he was in shape for the Tour.

Leipheimer earned his contract with Rabobank after finishing third at the 2001 Vuelta a Espana, the first American to stand on the podium at Spain’s biggest bike race. After undergoing emergency surgery last fall for an intestinal blockage, Leipheimer has said he is healthy again and ready to improve on his 2002 Tour finish.

Armstrong considers this year’s USPS team the strongest yet.

In May, team technical director Johan Bruyneel plucked Manuel Beltran from a fiscally ailing German team. Beltran, of Spain, is a strong mountain racer who is expected to set a fast pace for Armstrong up the hills.

Two other U.S. riders -- George Hincapie and Floyd Landis -- join Spain’s Roberto Heras, another strong climber who seemed glued to Armstrong’s side during last year’s mountain stages; 37-year-old Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov, who won the 2000 Olympic gold medal in the individual time trial; Jose Luis Rubiera of Spain; Victor Hugo Pena of Colombia and Pavel Padrnos of the Czech Republic.

Landis, 27, of San Diego, is a former mountain biker who debuted at last year’s Tour. A broken hip made him questionable for this team until as late as last week. Hincapie, 30, has also been slowed by illness this year, but Armstrong said he felt comfortable that both Landis and Hincapie were in good form again.

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For live updates of each day’s Tour de France stage, complete standings, cyclist profiles and course information, go to latimes.com/tour

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Making History

In 2002, Lance Armstrong became only the fourth cyclist to win the Tour de France four consecutive times, and the fifth to win four Tours overall. All four of the other cyclists to win that many have won five overall, a level Armstrong will try to reach this year, when he’ll also try to match Miguel Indurain’s record of five straight titles.

ARMSTRONG’S VICTORIES

1999 -- Total time 91 hours 32 minutes 16 seconds, 7:37 faster than Alex Zuelle of Switzerland.

2000 -- 92:33:08, 6:02 faster than Jan Ullrich of Germany.

2001 -- 86:17:28, 6:44 faster than Ullrich.

2002 -- 82:05:12, 7:17 faster than Joseba Beloki of Spain.

FIVE-TIME WINNERS

-Jacques Anquetil, France (1957, ‘61, ‘62, ‘63, ‘64).

- Eddy Merckx, Belgium (1969, ‘70, ‘71, ‘72, ‘74).

- Bernard Hinault, France (1978, ‘79, ‘81, ‘82, ‘85).

- Miguel Indurain, Spain (1991, ‘92, ‘93, ‘94, ‘95).

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At a Glance

A look at today’s prologue:

- Distance: 4.03 miles.

- Route: From the Eiffel Tower, through the streets of Paris to the foot of the Champ de Mars.

- Highest point: Place du Trocadero; altitude 244 feet.

- Lowest point: Place du Canada; altitude 155 feet.

- Number of riders: 198

- Number of stages left: 20.