Lance Armstrong a favorite for 2010 Tour de France

It's already being said, on Versus television by announcers such as Bob Roll and Paul Sherwen, and in the peloton by 2009 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador. A favorite for the 2010 Tour de France title?

Lance Armstrong.

Armstrong stood on the podium in Paris on Sunday in the spot reserved for the third-place finisher of the Tour de France, a couple of rungs below where the seven-time Tour winner is accustomed but a placing that earned the 37-year-old Texan as much applause as that given Astana teammate Contador.

His comeback also became the impetus for the formation of a third American-based pro cycling team.

Team RadioShack will begin racing next season with Armstrong as its lead rider, with Armstrong's long-time associate Johan Bruyneel as its likely director and rumors of everyone from three-time Amgen Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer to the Schleck brothers Andy (2009 Tour runner-up) and Frank as possible members of the new powerhouse squad.

As has been the case for most of this 2009 Tour, the other two American-based teams were in the thick of Sunday's finish as well.

Mark Cavendish, a brash British sprinter, won his sixth stage, this time on the Champs Elysees for Columbia-HTC, a team based in San Luis Obispo.

To win, Cavendish fought off a strong challenge from American Tyler Farrar of the Boulder-based Garmin-Slipstream. Garmin's Bradley Wiggins, another Briton, finished fourth overall.

Dave Cassaro, president of advertising sales for Comcast Network (which includes Versus), had attracted sponsors such as Cadillac and Infiniti to this year's Versus broadcast and, with numbers that as of Thursday were up an average of 95% over the Lance-less 2008 Tour, said he was bullish on cycling.

"What's happened this season, with Columbia and Garmin, plus with Lance proving his staying power, this is only going to get bigger," Cassaro said.

Garmin-Slipstream director Jonathan Vaughters said by telephone from Paris on Sunday that the addition of Team RadioShack and the continued presence of Armstrong in the peloton can be nothing but good.

"It's the best-case scenario," Vaughters said. "We're going to have to watch each other, we're going to possibly have the three best teams in the world all based in America, it doesn't have any negative impact. We've all got our sponsors, so from a business perspective it's good."