It’s been more than 20 years since an American won the Giro d’Italia (Andy Hampsten in 1988), and this, the 100th anniversary of the Giro, is as good a time as any for an American to don the maglia rosa once again.

OK, maybe I’m looking at it through rosa-colored glasses, but the stars may be aligned for this to be the year.

I’m picking American Levi Leipheimer.

Leipheimer’s team, Astana, is stacked with grand-tour veterans, including Mr. Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Riding alongside them will be American mountain goat Chris Horner, Yaroslav Popovich (whom Armstrong has a way of motivating), Chechu Rubiera (a faithful lieutenant of Armstrong over the years) and Janez Brajkovic (a former Tour de Georgia winner.)

Although Armstrong and Leipheimer are co-leaders of the team, I’m saying Leipheimer’s the guy. He is “on form” as they say, with stage race victories in the Tour of California and the Vuelta a Castilla y León, where Armstrong’s Giro preparation was dealt a blow with a broken collarbone last month. Lepheimer also won the Tour of the Gila, an American continental race, last week.

Beyond Leipheimer and Astana, the two American teams also are sending strong squads to Italy …

– Garmin-Slipstream features five time-trial specialists as it rolls to defend it’s TTT in last year’s race: David Zabriskie, David Millar, Christian Vande Velde, Danny Pate, and Bradley Wiggins. Vande Velde could contend for the overall, tho I’m thinking he’s still in tune-up mode for the Tour de France. American Tom Danielson is a strong climber and could stay with Vande Velde or the “heads of state” as Paul Sherwen likes to say, in the mountains.

– Columbia-High Road  features a squad that includes G.C. contender Mick Rogers, along with mountain goats Thomas Lovqvist and Konstantin Sivtsov, who won the Tour de Georgia last year.

On the other side of the pond, all eyes will be on the Italians, primarily Ivan Basso of Liquigas in his return to Grand Tour racing after serving a doping suspension. But Lampre has two contenders in Damiano Cunego and Marzio Bruseghin, and former Giro winners Gilberto Simoni of Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni and Danilo Di Luca of LPR Brakes cannot be counted out.

Defending Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre of Cervelo TestTeam and Rabobank’s two-time Vuelta winner Denis Menchov are major threats for the overall, as well. Two up-and-comers who bear watching are Graeme Brown of Rabobank and Lars Bak of Saxo Bank.

For the sprinters, two of the big names are missing: Big Tom Boonen of Quick Step and Robbie McEwen of Katusha. But the best in the world — Mark Cavendish of Columbia-High Road — is on board to contest the sprints with Filippo Pozzato of Katusha, J.J, Haedo of Saxo Bank and Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Slipstream.

Oh, and Olympic TT champ and three-time world TT champ Big Fabian Cancellara will be on hand to dominate the individual time trials.

It should be three eventful weeks in Italy.