With professionals and amateurs merging this year as ``elites'', the road race has been slotted into the hectic European schedule of major figures such as five times Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain.
Now that Indurain and world road race champion Abraham Olano are in the team, Spain are no longer the also-rans of past Olympic road races.
There is a distinct glow about their prospects. Whether it is gold, silver or bronze, Wednesday's tactics will decide, but Armstrong will be vigilant for the one-day specialists.
``It depends on who plays it the smartest,'' Armstrong said. ``It is going to be more tactical than a race of strength. A one-shot deal, and it will be fast and intense from the beginning.
``The course is not challenging, but if the humidity is high and there is heat that will change.
``I am super-motivated and I hope that makes up for what I missed on the Tour. I have been really fast over my usual training route, and if that is anything to go by then I am in the best shape of my life.''
The American winner of European one-day classics -- his latest was the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race in April -- pulled out of the Tour de France because of a chest infection.
``I did not take any antibiotics because with the Games coming up that would have been the end of my chances. You can win the Tour or classics but to Americans only the Olympics count.''
Laurent Jalabert, another potential medallist, knows it will be impossible to control the race with teams of five. ``I am not the leader of the French team,'' said the world number one who also quit the Tour with sickness.
``Circumstances will dictate who that will be. A succession of small climbs and bends will wear out a lot of riders.''
Olaf Ludwig, the 1988 Olympic champion, is making his last major appearance before retiring, but for Germany the absence of Jan Ullrich is a bigger blow.
As the revelation of the Tour with second place behind Danish winner Bjarne Riis, the 20-year-old seemed a natural selection. His national federation were ready to push for his late inclusion but Ullrich refused.
Before the Tour he had been given one choice: Race the Tour or the Olympics, but not both. He chose the Tour.
Riis will line up on Wednesday, but the Danes will look to Rolf Sorensen, one of those single-day experts that Armstrong warns about.
Jalabert and Belgium's Johan Museeuw are also on his list plus the whole Italian team. ``All five of them are potential winners,'' said Armstrong who hopes to make it a home win as Alexi Grewal did 12 years ago in Los Angeles.
Barcelona Games winner Fabio Casartelli of Italy was killed in a crash in last year's Tour de France.
On Tuesday the Frenchman gets his chance to be the first mountain biker to win an Olympic gold when 50 riders fight it out over a 10.65 km course at the Georgia International Horse Park, 35 km (20 miles) from Atlanta.
Martinez won the world under 23 title in the winter cross- country sport of cyclocross, and has come to the United States, the birthplace of mountain biking, with another golden priority at the first Olympics where it has been an event.
Built like a jockey, he weighs in at 52 kg (114.6 pounds) and his Dutch rival, Bart Brentjens, stands 26 cm (10 inches)inches above the 1.62 metre (five feet four inch) Martinez.
He is known as Little Mig as opposed to Big Mig, five times Tour winner Miguel Indurain, and it was a similar build that enabled Martinez senior to be the best climber in the Tour of '78.
In 25 years, cycling's new discipline has spread throughout the world, but Tuesday's certain contenders come down to eight nations.
Martinez faces a towering challenge in the 47 km race over rocky and rolling countryside.
Apart from world champion Brentjens, there is last year's World Cup winner Thomas Frischknecht, of Switzerland, Norwegian Rune Hoydahl, Dane Jan Erik Ostergaard, German Mike Kluge, and a powerful Italian pair, Daniele Pontoni and Luca Bramati.
U.S. rider David Juarez who rose from poverty to wealth because of mountain biking, may have an edge on his home turf even at the age of 35, the oldest in the race.
The medal chances are more clear cut in the women's 32 kms race over the same terrain of granite mounds and wooded trails.
Alison Sydor the world champion and leading the current World Cup series, has few rivals. Already a seasoned road racer, the Canadian won a world championship bronze at Stuttgart five years ago.
American Julie Furtado and Sylvia Furst of Switzerland stand out from the field of 30 with European champion Caroline Alexander as Britain's best medal hope of the Games cycling programme.