With Lance Armstrong declining his spot on the U.S. Olympic road team, USA Cycling on Wednesday officially nominated Levi Leipheimer as Armstrong’s replacement on the five-man team, joining George Hincapie, Bobby Julich, Tyler Hamilton and Jason McCartney. Leipheimer’s nomination was primarily based on USA Cycling’s automatic selection criteria, which gives a nomination to any rider that places top-five in a UCI hors-categorie stage race, the highest UCI stage-race ranking outside of a grand tour. Leipheimer placed fifth at the Tour of the Basque Country in April, but was initially passed over in favor of Hincapie, who placed fifth at the hors-categorie Paris-Nice and had a higher UCI ranking than Leipheimer.

"Levi’s addition to the team is an obvious testament to the depth of American cycling talent," commented USA Cycling CEO Gerard Bisceglia. "Lance’s departure is understandable and we certainly respect his decision to withdraw himself from the Olympics. Having the luxury to replace him with someone of Levi’s caliber allows us to maintain a powerful team with a proven veteran."

Leipheimer sat 19th in the overall standings at the Tour de France after stage 10, and Hamilton, Hincapie and Julich were also all in the top 20 of the general classification.

USA Cycling also announced that Hamilton and Julich would contest the time trial in Athens.