Oprah Winfrey speaks with Lance Armstrong during an interview on the controversy surrounding his cycling career on Monday, January 14, in Austin, Texas. Oprah Winfrey's exclusive no-holds-barred interview with Lance Armstrong, "Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive," has expanded to air as a two-night event on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. The interview airs Thursday, January 17, and Friday, January 18.
(CNN) -- In July, when the riders of the Tour de France headed into Paris during the final stage of the race, they gave the honor of leading the pack onto the Champs-Elysees to George Hincapie.
The 39-year-old American was immensely respected by his peers and well-loved by cycling fans even though he never won the event. Never even came close.
He will best be remembered, not as a two-time stage winner in cycling's greatest event, but as Lance Armstrong's main sidekick, his "best bro."
While Armstrong rode for glory, Hincapie rode for the team.
Armstrong and Hincapie were teammates even before Armstrong won his first individual Tour titles, compatriots on a team that was struggling to compete with others.
Until the two started taking performance-enhancing drugs.
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Hincapie has said that it was 1996 when he first began to take banned drugs to improve his racing, something he said he would do for 10 years. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have been able to compete with the best cyclists, he said.
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The sport is much cleaner now, he said by phone this week from Greenville, South Carolina, as he transitions into the next phase of his cycling life.
"Generally speaking there isn't doping any more," Hincapie said. "I can't say without a doubt that no one is no doping, but the culture definitely has changed."
Armstrong, in an interview aired this week, told Oprah Winfrey he engaged in doping from the mid-1990s to 2005, the year of his last of seven Tour de France titles and when he began his first retirement.
The perception of doping in the sport has lingered, even though Hincapie and others have said they stopped doping and subsequently raced clean.
Cycling officials have taken steps to cut down on the number of drug cheats, Hincapie said.
Great damage has already been done.
"The credibility of the sport is at an all-time low," Chris Keyes, editor of Outside magazine said. "And it'd be a mistake to pin that all on Lance Armstrong."
"It's tragic for what (doping) has done to a great sport and it's going to be a long time before it recovers," Keyes said.
Some professional teams have seen sponsors leave -- something some in cycling see as fallout from the doping scandals but others see as a barometer of the world economy.
Richard Schwinn, co-founder of Waterford Precision Cycles, said sponsors often come and go, depending on the how well their businesses are doing.
It costs at least $5 million a year to run a top-flight team, he said, which might not be much for a big bank one year, but may be too much the next.
Keyes and Bicycling magazine editor Peter Flax say disappearing marketing money has more do with the fact that some sponsors don't want to be associated with a sport that has been so prominently linked to cheating.
Its effect reaches beyond the elite teams.
"Tour de France teams have had to cobble together new sponsors and get more sponsors," Flax said. "And there are fewer lower level pro teams. It's a sad moment in time that will take a while to rebuild from."
While Armstrong was king, U.S. TV ratings soared and dollars rolled in. After he retired, the numbers plunged.
Armstrong's fall makes it a lot less likely that cycling will ever reach the popularity on television it did when the Texan was astonishing the world with his comeback from cancer, Keyes said.
It isn't like cycling is totally going in reverse.
Among recreational cyclists, the sport is as popular as ever. About 39 million Americans ride at least six times a year, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.
"The bicycler retailer industry seems to be showing growth that equals population growth," said Schwinn, whose company makes upscale specialty bikes.
A lot of that comes because more cities have come to realize how much good bike facilities -- bike lanes and multi-use paths -- enhance life for residents, he said.
Still, just because more people are riding road bikes and commuting to work doesn't necessarily lead to a similar increase in fans, especially casual ones, watching cycling on TV.
It will probably take success of another American star.
When asked who might be the U.S. guy to watch in the Tour de France this year, each person interviewed pointed to Tejay van Garderen, a 24-year-old who was fifth in last year's race and won the event's best young rider award.
He may not have the back story of Armstrong or the Texan's strong personality, but he's very likeable.
"Tejay is really low key," Flax said. "There's not a lot of strutting and ego coming out of him. He's someone people feel like they can believe in."
He and Taylor Phinney, another promising young rider, are members of the BMC team, which features 2011 Tour winner Cadel Evans. Flax thinks van Garderen has a chance to finish in the top three, even though he'll be supporting Evans' chances.
Hincapie, who puts on a series of spring races and owns a development team of young riders, believes the sport as a whole is in good shape.
"Cycling has gone through some drama for sure, but racing is as popular as ever," he said. "People still love racing their bikes."
And he said more people than ever were attending cycling events, at least as he sees the crowds.
Those people almost become addicted to a sport where the beauty of the course belies the intense demands on riders, Hincapie said.
"The people that are in it, they are not going to go away," he said.
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Cyclist Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France wins and banned from the tournament for life, the International Cycling Union announced Monday, October 22. Pictured, Armstrong addresses participants at The Livestrong Challenge Ride on Sunday. He stepped down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer charity on Wednesday, October 17.
Armstrong leads his teammates during the final stage of the 1999 Tour de France.
Armstrong, 17, competes in the Jeep Triathlon Grand Prix in 1988. He became a professional triathlete at age 16 and joined the U.S. National Cycling Team two years later.
In 1995, Armstrong wins the 18th stage of the Tour de France. He finished 36th overall and finished the race for the first time that year.
Armstrong rides for charity in May 1998 at the Ikon Ride for the Roses to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He established the foundation to benefit cancer research after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996. After treatment, he was declared cancer-free in February 1997.
Armstrong takes his honor lap on the Champs-Élysées in Paris after winning the Tour de France for the first time in 1999.
After winning the 2000 Tour de France, Armstrong holds his son Luke on his shoulders.
Armstrong rides during the 18th stage of the 2001 Tour de France. He won the tour that year for the third consecutive time.
Armstrong celebrates winning the 10th stage of the Tour de France in 2001.
After winning the 2001 Tour de France, Armstrong presents President George W. Bush with a U.S. Postal Service yellow jersey and a replica of the bike he used to win the race.
Armstrong celebrates on the podium after winning the Tour de France by 61 seconds in 2003. It was his fifth consecutive win.
Jay Leno interviews Armstrong on "The Tonight Show" in 2003.
After his six consecutive Tour de France win in 2004, Armstrong attends a celebration in his honor in front of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.
Armstrong arrives at the 2005 American Music Awards in Los Angeles with his then-fiancee Sheryl Crow. The couple never made it down the aisle, splitting up the following year.
Armstrong holds up a paper displaying the number seven at the start of the Tour de France in 2005. He went on to win his seventh consecutive victory.
As a cancer survivor, Armstrong testifies during a Senate hearing in 2008 on Capitol Hill. The hearing focused on finding a cure for cancer in the 21st century.
In 2009, Armstrong suffers a broken collarbone after falling during a race in Spain along with more than a dozen other riders.
Young Armstrong fans write messages on the ground using yellow chalk ahead of the 2009 Tour de France. He came in third place that year.
Armstrong launches the three-day Livestrong Global Cancer Summit in 2009 in Dublin, Ireland. The event was organized by his foundation.
In May 2010, Armstrong crashes during the Amgen Tour of California and is taken to the hospital. That same day, he denied allegations of doping made by former teammate Floyd Landis.
Ahead of what he said would be his last Tour de France, Armstrong gears up for the start of the race in 2010.
Lance Armstrong looks back as he rides in a breakaway during the 2010 Tour de France.
Armstrong finishes 23rd in the 2010 Tour de France. He announced his retirement from the world of professional cycling in February 2011. He said he wants to devote more time to his family and the fight against cancer.
Armstrong's son Luke; twin daughters, Isabelle and Grace; and 1-year-old son, Max, stand outside the Radioshack team bus on a rest day during the 2010 Tour de France.
The frame of Armstrong's bike is engraved with the names of his four children at the time and the Spanish word for five, "cinco." His fifth child, Olivia, was born in October 2010.
In February 2012, Armstrong competes in the 70.3 Ironman Triathlon in Panama City. He went on to claim two Half Ironman triathlon titles by June. He got back into the sport after retiring from professional cycling.
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