[artplumber]

Armstrong is clearly the favorite as others have said. I think that the competition is a lot closer to him than they have been in the past. T-Mobile is reformulated to win the tour now - probably will be Kloeden or Vinokourov as top dog rather than Ullrich. Don't forget that Basso stayed with Armstrong last year in the mountains and Basso's weakest area of time trialing is better than it was last year. Last year there were no "looks" and ride away from the field. Age catches up to everyone.
The best news from this year's tour is that there are a bunch of Americans potentially in contention including some really young blood. Hopefully, the good ol' USA won't forget the race once Armstrong is gone.

BTW Lance had even bigger legs before cancer - he was really a sprinter.