Musseuw took Parius-Roubaix in style

Roll on three months later and the Texan was back to winning ways, triumphing in the seven-day Dauphine Libere in convincing style.

In between, the American, whose sole focus is Le Tour, has taken more of a back seat.

There have been some sensational sprint finishes in the one-day races and a drug-damaged Giro d'Italia which still featured some scintillating performances on the road.

It was like old times back on 14 April when World Cup stalwart Johan Museeuw powered his way to victory in the Paris-Roubaix classic.

The Belgian broke away from the field with 40km remaining and held on to a three-minute advantage as he crossed the line.

By the time cycling's elite traversed the course's famous cobble stones, Musseuw had already made his mark, finishing second to Andrea Tafi in the Tour of Flanders.

Mario Cipollini had won the only other World Cup race of the year, sprinting to victory in the Milan-San-Remo.

Three days after Musseuw's victory, Mario Aerts took an impressive win in the Fleche Wallone before round four of the World Cup - the Liege-Bastone-Liege classic.

Italy was once again triumphant, this time in the guise of Paolo Bettini in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, part of an impressive season for the Mapei rider.

Bettini, like Musseuw, broke away from the pack following along with Stefano Garzelli and outsprinted his countryman and team-mate to the line.

Armstrong had to make do with finishing among the also rans in 65th place.

Michele Bartoli was the next Italian on the winner's podium in the Amstel Road Race.

This time Armstrong was among the leading quartet to break, but finished fourth to Bartoli in a sprint that included second-placed man Sergei Ivanov and Michael Boogerd.

For Bartoli, the tears flowed as he dedicated his win to his wife and it marked a major turnaround following a loss of form.

The major single-day races were put on hold as the year moved into May for the Giro d'Italia.

Bettini continued Italy's strong run

Sadly drugs once again took the headlines with Gilberto Simoni and Garzelli among the riders to fail drugs tests.

Paolo Savoldelli eventually claimed the overall victory for the Index Alexia team, while American Tyler Hamilton pulled himself into second place.

The other headlines were saved for Cipollini, who sprinted away with six stage victories.

As usual, one of the last words before Le Tour was reserved for Armstrong in the Dauphine Libere.

The American won by two minutes from countryman and team-mate Floyd Landis.

He then took one of the other French warm-up races, the Midi Libre, in similar dominant style.

The signs for Armstrong's rivals do not look good, particularly considering another US Postal man, Roberto Heras won the Tour de Catalunya a week later.

The Tour du Sud in France had another American winner, but not Armstrong or even a team-mate.

Former US Postal star Levi Leipheimer, now with Rabobank, won this tour around the Pyrenees.

The final warm-up was the Tour de Suisse, where Erik Zabel warmed up in the sprints with two wins.