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and himself take five Tour crowns. Hinault, wracked with tendinitis problems throughout his career, nonetheless dominated the European peloton as it entered the eighties. Winner in 1978 and 1979, Hinault claimed three more crowns in the new decade. In 1981 and 1982 he returned from a year away to win his third and fourth title. Then, in 1985, the famous feud between Hinault and young American teammate Greg LeMond flared up. Hinault won the Tour, his teammate took second, and Hinault famously promised that he would work for LeMond the next year. But when July 1986 rolled around, Hinault attacked all across France in what some perceived as an effort to claim an unprecedented sixth yellow jersey. Hinault claims that he was trying to burst apart the rest of the field... and the tactics proved effective, as LeMond claimed the first Tour victory by an American under the guidance of Hinault...

And then, after a half-decade of relative dominance by the American rider, one final rider came along who would claim five Tour victories of his own. Miguel Indurain, a powerful Spanish rider with the Banesto squad (currently Caisse d'Epargne/Illes Balears), became the first rider to win five consecutive Tour championships, sweeping the honors from 1991-1995. Unlike his predecessors, Indurain was an unassuming champion, rarely working to control or dominate the peloton. Rather, he simply used his sublime time-trial skills and measured his efforts in the mountains to slowly batter his opponents into submission. In 1996, Indurain finished a dismal eleventh, suffering from bronchitis the entire way... he would not compete in another Tour, retiring after failing to finish that season's Vuelta a Espana...

As the sport wavered in a period of anarchy, with the Deutsche Telekom (later T-Mobile) team dominating the 1996 and 1997 versions - with riders who would later admit to the use of the blood-booster EPO - before the scandal-plagued 1998 edition, one rider appeared poised to equal and surpass the feats of these previous champions. Jan Ullrich, in his rookie Tour de France in 1996, finished second overall behind his team captain Bjarne Riis. The next season, Ullrich could not be contained even by his teammate, and appeared on the cusp of a decade of dominance. But the 1998 Tour saw Marco Pantani beat back every attempt of Ullrich to repeat...

Then, reemerging in the sport after a bout with advanced-stage testicular cancer, Lance Armstrong rode with the lightly-regarded U.S. Postal Service

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