ESPN Cycling

It was the race that changed everything, and set the tone for years to come.

Lance Armstrong was considered one of the favorites as the 1999 Tour de France rolled out with a short prologue time trial in Puy-du-Fou, a theme park near the Atlantic coast in the northwestern part of the country. But he was still less than three years removed from cancer treatment, with an untried supporting cast and a rookie director in former Belgian pro Johan Bruyneel. Although Armstrong donned the yellow jersey on that first day, few might have predicted he would wind up winning the race by a comfortable margin of 7 minutes 37 seconds, catapulting himself into an intense international vortex of fame, admiration and controversy.

The sport was hoping for a feel-good storyline the year after the ugly Festina drug scandal blew the cover on the extent of systematized doping in the peloton. But two of cycling's biggest stars, defending champion Marco Pantani of Italy and runner-up Jan Ullrich of Germany, were absent due to doping allegations and injury, respectively. Armstrong's former Motorola teammate Bobby Julich, who finished third in 1998, started the race in jersey No. 1.

U.S. Postal arrived at the start line with two rented camper vans, a far cry from the rock-star buses of later years. Its eight other riders were fully committed to sacrificing themselves for Armstrong. Most had raced in the Tour before, but none had experience in defending the overall leader's yellow jersey. They dubbed themselves the "Bad News Bears."

"It was an interesting team," Armstrong said. "The team wound up rallying and being able to help me win, but it was an odd bunch."

That single-minded focus was born of necessity -- "We might not have had another guy who could have won a stage," Frankie Andreu recalled -- and it went against the grain of traditional European teams who tried to compete for sprints and breakaway wins, as well as placing a man high in the general classification. Postal may have been ragged that year compared to the well-oiled machine later in Armstrong's seven-year reign, and the team didn't invent that racing style, but its execution in 1999 has affected roster choices and tactics ever since.

A crash on the wet pavement of the Passage du Gois, a stretch of road traversing a harbor that is only passable at low tide (and barely that on that particular day) cost Postal one rider on the second day of the race, and caused a split in the peloton that proved crucial to Armstrong's eventual victory. He donned the yellow jersey for good after winning the Stage 8 time trial and tightened his grip on the lead the following day on the climb to the Italian ski resort of Sestrieres.

Armstrong's dominance amid the still-radioactive fallout of Festina naturally aroused skepticism that his performances could be clean. Controversy first erupted during the race when the newspaper Le Monde reported that traces of a banned corticosteroid had been found in his system, although not enough to meet the threshold of a positive test. Armstrong said he was using a cortisone cream to treat saddle sores, and produced a prescription; cycling authorities backed Armstrong.

Just days after Armstrong's 2005 retirement, the French sports daily newspaper L'Equipe reported that six of his urine samples from the '99 Tour, re-tested years later for research purposes, showed the presence of the blood booster EPO. No reliable test existed for the banned substance at the time, although its use had by then become common in the peloton. Armstrong vehemently denied the allegations. An investigator appointed by the UCI, cycling's international governing body, criticized the politics and methodology behind the testing. Proponents of both sides continue to dispute the credibility of the other.

There will be no team reunion on this anniversary year. The riders' paths have diverged, to say the least. Some are still close friends; some aren't on speaking terms. One just accepted what amounts to a lifetime ban for doping. After retiring, another confessed. Two have changed teams and roles in the past few seasons; one coaches amateurs; another directs an elite team. Armstrong left the sport and declared he had moved on, then changed his mind.

The meaning of those three weeks might be very different to each man, but they, and we, will probably talk about it forever.

Frankie Andreu

Then: A close friend and former Motorola teammate of Armstrong's, Andreu was set to jump to Cofidis with him when Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer in late 1996. The two rejoined forces at Postal in 1998. One of the most experienced members of the team's 1999 Tour roster, Andreu had already finished seven Tours by the time he lined up for the start that year. He toiled diligently in his customary domestique role and finished 65th. Andreu raced in his ninth and final Tour for Postal the next year and worked for several pro teams following his retirement.

Now: The 42-year-old father of three lives in his hometown of Dearborn, Mich., and is a part-time commentator for the Versus network and other outlets. In 2006, Andreu admitted in a New York Times interview he had used EPO to prepare for the '99 Tour. His friendship with Armstrong has long since crumbled. Andreu and his wife, Betsy, testified under subpoena in an arbitration case against Armstrong, saying they were present when Armstrong told doctors treating him for cancer that he had used performance-enhancing drugs, an incident Armstrong denies ever happened. Despite the rift, Andreu said he still treasures the memory of arriving on the Champs-Elysees with his Postal teammates. "If I take myself out of 'now' and go back to 'then,' the feelings I had were incredible," Andreu said. "I worked hard for it."

Pascal Derame

Then: Derame (pronounced day-ramay) rode for the French GAN team for two seasons before joining Postal in 1997 at the behest of then-leader Jean-Cyril Robin, who didn't want to be the only Frenchman on the team. A workhorse with an occasionally zany sense of humor, Derame dyed his hair purple during the '98 Tour, where Robin finished sixth; in one of his top moments in the sport, he competed for a stage win in a breakaway and ultimately finished fourth. There were no such individual pursuits the following year, when Derame put in steady, daily efforts on the front of the peloton, helping the better climbers on the team save energy to aid and abet Armstrong. Derame left Postal in 2000 for the French Bonjour team, but said he suffered somewhat of a letdown racing the Tour again after the extraordinary events of 1999.

Now: After retiring in 2002 because of burnout, Derame became a licensed coach and now works with the young would-be pros called "espoirs" -- literally "hopefuls" -- in his native Brittany. He is well aware of the mixed emotions Armstrong arouses in France, but said simply, "Nothing has spoiled my memories of the 1999 Tour."

Tyler Hamilton

Then: The former competitive downhill ski racer from Marblehead, Mass., was one of Armstrong's most productive helpers in the mountains during the '99 Tour, and repeated that role in 2000 and 2001. "Everyone on the team rode above and beyond what they thought they could do," he said recently. He left to seek his fortunes as a team leader, first with the Danish CSC team, then with Switzerland-based Phonak, and established himself as one of the top riders in the peloton with a second-place finish in the Giro d'Italia (2002), a fourth in the Tour (2003) and an Olympic gold medal in the time trial (2004). Olympic authorities later said an initial blood test showed irregularities but could not be confirmed because the backup sample was improperly stored.

Now: Charged with blood doping by transfusion during the 2004 Tour of Spain, Hamilton denied wrongdoing and fought unsuccessfully to overturn the test results. Documents seized by police linked him with the Operacion Puerto doping investigation in Spain -- a connection he denied -- but he was never formally charged. Hamilton returned to competition after a two-year suspension and floundered until finding his legs with maverick Rock Racing during the 2008 season, when he won a stage race in China and sprinted to a surprise victory in the U.S. road championships. But on the eve of the Tour of California this past February, Hamilton said he took an herbal supplement to alleviate symptoms of clinical depression even though he knew it contained a banned steroid precursor. He revealed the positive test and simultaneously announced his retirement in April, and recently received an eight-year racing ban.

George Hincapie

Then: The versatile Hincapie's chief role in '99 was as a "rouleur," or rider who does a lot of work at the front, especially on flat stages. His size (6-foot-3, 170 pounds) and bike-handling ability combined to make him a gifted one-day racer and helped earn him U.S. championships in 1998 and 2006. He also excelled at shorter time trials and won a memorable mountain stage from a two-man breakaway in the Pyrenees in 2005. A New York native of Colombian heritage, he is the only rider to have been part of all seven of Armstrong's Tour-winning teams, and also rode in support of Alberto Contador's 2007 win with the Discovery Channel team.

Now: Hincapie, so long typecast as Armstrong's sidekick, has established a more separate identity since signing with Team Columbia-HTC (then T-Mobile) before the 2008 season. Known for his prowess on the cobblestones, the 36-year-old Hincapie is still chasing the elusive dream of winning the punishing Paris-Roubaix classic after seven top-10 finishes. He will be starting his 14th straight Tour de France this year, has finished all but the first, and is also a five-time U.S. Olympic team member. The 36-year-old wooed former "podium girl" Melanie Simonneau after meeting her at the Tour; they have a daughter and a son and live in Greenville, S.C. Hincapie and his brother Rich co-own Hincapie Sportswear.

Kevin Livingston

Then: Along with Hamilton, the St. Louis native and talented climber was assigned to escort Armstrong through the mountains in 1999 and reprised that role in the 2000 Tour. Livingston, a former Motorola teammate and close friend of Armstrong's, shocked him by leaving in 2001 to ride for German rival Ullrich at Team Telekom; the rupture in their friendship has since been repaired. He retired in 2002.

Now: Livingston runs his Pedal Hard coaching and consulting business inside Armstrong's Mellow Johnny's bike shop in Austin, Texas, and works with the Trek-Livestrong under-23 team begun by Armstrong as part of his comeback. Livingston has also served as a competition director for several major domestic races, including the Tours of California, Georgia and Missouri.

Peter Meinert Nielsen

Then: The senior member of the 1999 Postal Tour roster at age 33, the former Danish road champion had been a member of the Dutch TVM and Telekom teams before then-director Johnny Weltz, a fellow Dane, recruited him to join Postal in 1997. Meinert Nielsen had established his credentials as a big (6-2), sturdy domestique in two previous Tours with the team. However, during the race, Meinert Nielsen developed severe tendinitis that inflamed one knee and, as Andreu recalled, "was riding with one leg" until he was forced to abandon during Stage 13. He rejoined the team for the victory laps on the Champs-Elysees. Meinert Nielsen retired after the following season and worked as an assistant director for a Danish team.

Now: Meinert Nielsen, now the owner of a kitchen supply store in Denmark, still works part-time with a Continental-level team.

Christian Vande Velde

Then: The 23-year-old second-year pro didn't know what he was getting into, and that was a good thing. "It was a totally stress-free fun time, apart from Alpe d'Huez, where I thought I was going to die," said Vande Velde, who briefly wore the Best Young Rider's white jersey during the race. "I slept like a baby, 10 hours a night. I wish I had that bliss back, or that ignorance. At the party, I sat there drinking great wine and not really understanding what had just happened."

He continued to compete on the road in classic races and on the track for the next two seasons before a series of injuries beat down his form and morale. Vande Velde fell out of favor at Postal, spent part of one miserable year with Liberty Seguros, and considered retiring before finding new inspiration at CSC, where he served as a super-domestique from 2004-07 and won his first European stage race.

Now: Former Postal teammate Jonathan Vaughters recruited Vande Velde to lead the U.S.-based Slipstream team through the 2008 season, and Vande Velde rose to the challenge of converting himself from support rider to Tour contender, finishing fourth overall last year. His prospects going into this year's race are more of a question mark after a brutal crash in the Tour of Italy in which he fractured five vertebrae. Vande Velde, his wife and two daughters split their time between Girona, Spain, and the couple's hometown of Lemont, Ill.

Jonathan Vaughters

Then: A talented climber, Vaughters set a record time (since broken) for the ascent of Mont Ventoux, but his Tour role was as a domestique. His 1999 Tour ended on the second day of the race when he crashed during the treacherous ride over slick pavement on the Passage du Gois, broke his chin and was forced to abandon the next day. Vaughters' cursed luck continued in his other Tour attempts with the French Credit Agricole team. He crashed out twice more and withdrew from his final Tour in 2001 after an allergic reaction to an insect sting swelled one eye shut. He could not be treated because of anti-doping rules then in place governing the therapeutic use of cortisone. He retired in 2003 after a brief stint with the U.S. Prime Alliance team.

Now: The 36-year-old Denver native started a U.S. junior developmental team in 2003. Initially sponsored by the 5280 magazine and then TIAA-CREF, the team evolved into the current elite squad sponsored by Garmin. Vaughters, who never directly admitted to doping but has left little to the imagination in his statements on the subject, implemented independent testing on his team and has been an outspoken advocate for clean sport. "To me, the sport is in a much better place now," he said. "The anti-doping controls are much more effective, and there's more parity between the top teams."

Bonnie D. Ford covers tennis and Olympic sports for ESPN.com. She can be reached at bonniedford@aol.com.