In form Hincapie eyes Tour

"You should ask Johan Bruyneel because I haven't been told anything," Hincapie told Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure.

Last season, the Discovery Channel sporting director hinted that 2005 Giro d'Italia winner Paolo Savoldelli would be team leader on this year's edition of the Tour, but after the retirement of Lance Armstrong, there's no ruling out up-and-coming Ukranian Yaroslav Popovych or Hincapie, who turned heads by winning the hardest Pyrenees stage with a summit finish in Saint Lary Soulan last year.

"My programme remains the same," said Hincapie. "I'll race the classics that suit me. My dream is to win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix [where he finished second last year].

"But I won't hide the fact that I'd love to try my luck on the Tour de France. Whatever happens, I'll try to stay in touch with the favourites as long as possible. But for the Classics, I'd have to shed Boonen! Your compatriot is going like the wind at the moment."

«I've come straight from California, where the Tour was a huge success with the crowd," said Hincapie.

"All of the big name American racers were there and that's maybe why we're a little bit ahead of ourselves in our preparation," he added one day after Tour of California winner Floyd Landis took the overall leader's jersey on Paris-Nice.

"Regarding my own shape, I'm clearly in better shape than I was last year at the same time, even if right now, I'm still feeling the effects of jet lag."

For years, the faithful first lieutenant of Armstrong, the 32-year old native New Yorker was asked what it was like to ride without the retired seven-time Tour de France winner.

"Oddly enough, we feel more pressure than when he was with us. Before, Lance took everything on himself. Now, everyone wants to see what we're capable of doing without him and more or less unconsciously, the team feels it."

FORUM: Ask David Harmon