updated 4:59 p.m. ET Aug. 18, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Tyler Hamilton dreams of yellow. Olympic gold is close enough.

His greatest ride capped the finest Olympic day for U.S. cycling, which won three of the six medals awarded in Wednesday’s road time trials — surpassing its two total road medals won since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

Led by Hamilton, the Americans left the scenic road course along the Saronic Gulf with one medal of every hue; Dede Barry won silver in the women’s trial, Bobby Julich took the men’s bronze.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I was in awe watching the Olympics and seeing a gold medalist on top of the podium, then hearing the national anthem,” Hamilton said. “Even as a kid, I’d get goosebumps. This is not just a victory for me or USA Cycling — it’s a victory for the entire United States of America.”

No other nation took home more road medals from Athens than the United States, which touted its team as the deepest group of riders ever sent to an Olympics — even without Lance Armstrong, the six-time defending Tour de France champion who declined an invitation.

Hamilton, Barry, Julich and Christine Thorburn — who was fourth in the women’s race, missing a medal by just 19.93 seconds — finally proved there’s more to U.S. cycling than just Armstrong.

“Lance has really catapulted cycling onto the U.S. sports scene,” Hamilton said. “We owe him a lot of credit for where we are today. The strength of these four riders today, it was incredible. It shows the U.S. has a lot of depth in cycling. We were just four, four of the many.”

Hamilton finished the 29.8-mile men’s race in 57 minutes, 31.74 seconds, a time that beat defending gold medalist Viatcheslav Ekimov of Russia by 18.84 seconds for the first American road gold since 1984 — when Alexi Grewal won the road race in Los Angeles.

Those games were boycotted by the cycling-strong Eastern Bloc nations. The world’s best were here Wednesday, and Hamilton took them all down.

“Fantastic. Unbelievable. It hasn’t sunk it yet,” Hamilton said. “I gave it everything I had. I’ve been angry ever since crashing out of the Tour, and I took that anger out here today.”

Hamilton’s year started with one goal: Winning the Tour de France and donning the yellow jersey awarded to its champion. Yet he’s developed a penchant for getting hurt at all the wrong times in cycling’s premier race, riding virtually the whole 2003 event with a broken collarbone and dropping out in the 13th stage this year with an injured back.

So he spent extra time on his time trial bike, Athens his new goal.

“It’s not a yellow jersey,” Hamilton said, his right hand tightly clutching the gold medal. “It’ll work.”

Julich’s time was 57:58.19, 3.48 seconds better than Australia’s Michael Rogers in the battle for bronze. He rode with a broken right wrist, also suffered in the 13th stage of the Tour — but not diagnosed until a few days ago.

He steadily got stronger as the race went along, snaking his way up the leaderboard with every half-lap. And in the final 7.4-mile leg turning for home, he got to the line in 14:24, eight seconds faster than Rogers and more than enough to earn a spot at Hamilton’s left on the medal stand.

“I wasn’t nervous,” Julich said. “I knew I had good legs. USA Cycling put us up at a hotel about 300 meters from here, so the last two, three days had been really relaxed.”

Some USA Cycling officials privately felt that three medals at the entire Olympics may be a bit optimistic. But three in one day?

“Not a bad day at all,” USA Cycling president Jim Ochowicz said. “We got it done.”

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