The network is so confident the Tour de France will continue to grow in popularity, it signed an extension with the Amaury Sport Organization in June. The event will remain on the network through 2013.

“The indicators are that, while cycling is battling for its soul, as many sports leagues are, the fans are tough and they’re resilient and they are impatient for an outcome,” Harvey said. “They are impatient for some confidence that there’s going to be cleaner competition.”

In fact, the network is running an advertising campaign called “Take Back the Tour,” which Harvey said echoes the sentiment of many fans.

The other thing fans in the U.S. are waiting for is another rider like Armstrong, an athlete with the power to attract the common sports fan.

“A lot of sports are personality-driven and gain more widespread popularity when there’s a vibrant personality at the top,” said Chris Carmichael, who was Armstrong’s coach. “Michael Jordan brought people who didn’t care about basketball into the sport, and the same can be said for Tiger Woods and golf.”

The same can also be said for Armstrong and cycling. The problem for cycling in America now is the lack of a dominant homegrown figure. Levi Leipheimer would be the American favorite, but his team, Astana, has been banned from the Tour by the ASO after the controversy stemming from last year’s competition. The top American left is veteran George Hincapie. It will be interesting to follow the Slipstream team, which has a mission to be 100 percent clean, testing its riders every 14 days. According to its Web site slipstreamsports.com, the team’s riders are tested 20 times more often than is required by the sport’s international governing body, the Union Cycliste International.

“We’re kind of ushering in this new generation of cyclists now who weren’t necessarily around when all of these doping scandals were going on,” USA Cycling’s director of communications Andy Lee said. “They themselves, their team management, and those types of things have recognized how important it is to get the sport back on track.”

While there is no clear-cut favorite to take Armstrong’s throne, 17-year-old Taylor Phinney has the talent and the pedigree that American sports fans love — his parents, Davis and Connie, are both famous cyclists, and Davis is battling Parkinson’s disease.

Despite the negative image in recent years, participation in cycling continues to grow in the U.S. According to USA Cycling, membership has climbed from 42,724 in 2002 to 61,594 last year. The number of cycling clubs is up, as is the number of USA Cycling events.

In fact, when looking at cycling in the U.S., it is almost necessary to look at it from two different angles. There are those who compete and those who watch. Carmichael is confident that not only will the sport’s image improve from a competitive standpoint but, considering the health benefits and the fact that it’s a green sport — no fossil fuels needed — he thinks it will continue to grow as a participation sport.

“In terms of the sport, I’m a pragmatic optimist and I believe cycling will emerge as a role model for other professional sports,” Carmichael said. “Right now, the sport’s in a transition because it’s breaking new ground in the fight against doping.

“I have three kids and people ask me whether I’d encourage my kids to start racing bikes. The answer is yes. I’m less concerned about the availability and temptation to use performance-enhancing drugs in sports than I am about the dangers faced every day by teens who aren’t involved in sports at all.”

LeMond agrees and also sees an increase in bike traffic in years to come.

“I want to see it healthy and something people can aspire to like I was able to,” LeMond said.

Cycling has always had a bad boy persona, but over the past year steps have been taken to turn that around, starting with increased testing by the UCI. Riders are given 12 blood tests each year — at least 10 are out-of-competition tests — and four urine tests. The penalty for the first positive test is a two-year suspension. A second positive results in a lifetime ban.

“There’s no doubt the way to catch is out-of-competition tests, because if the riders are allowed to get in with these unscrupulous doctors who give them the stuff, they know exactly when to bring them off so they won’t be checked and tested positive,” Liggett said.

However, LeMond would like to see even more changes. The biggest change would be a new governing body to replace the UCI, which has feuded with the ASO ever since former UCI president Hein Verbruggen tried to take some of the television money away from the organizers of the Tour de France. In fact, LeMond went so far as to say he is confident there will be a change before the start of this year’s event.

“It’s almost unthinkable,” Liggett said. “It should never have been allowed to get this far. The UCI started it and it could be the ASO that’s going to finish it.”

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“The role of our government is to ensure transparency and equal abilities for people to compete in business, but also for law enforcement to up hold the rules,” LeMond said. “It’s the same in cycling. The governing body is ultimately the one that’s responsible and they’ve done a very poor job of it.”

Cycling came dangerously close to falling off the cliff, but experts are cautiously optimistic it is turning the corner. There are more changes to be made and, in the eyes of the common sports fan, the sport may never shed its bad boy image. But like a restored vintage car, LeMond hopes that over time the Tour de France can get its magic back.

“I think they’ve drawn a line,” LeMond said. “Either you’re for anti-doping and you’re in it to clean up the sport or you’re not welcome in the sport. It’s exciting. It’s finally gotten to where I wanted it to go and I thought that would have happened in ’98.”