Magical. It is the best word Greg LeMond could find to describe the Tour de France. It is the element of human suffering over 23 days in July that drew the three-time winner to the sport. He dreamed of winning the event as a 17-year-old and was able to follow that dream without ever feeling the need to use performance-enhancing drugs.

Over the past few years, though, LeMond hasn't had the same magical feeling about cycling.

“It’s been impossible for me to even participate, because of what I knew,” said LeMond, the first American to win the Tour de France. “I couldn’t look somebody in the face, a sponsor or anybody and say, ‘Yeah, you can compete in the Tour and win without drugs.’ That would be telling a lie.”

However, after two years of scandal and speculation focused on Tour winners Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador, along with accusations and positive tests surrounding some of the sport’s biggest names, LeMond actually sees a promising future with an increase in the amount of drug tests, new forms of testing and a possible changing of the guard in cycling’s governing body.

“I’m real excited that there could be some really dramatic shifts in a very short period,” LeMond said. “I’m hoping to be a part of that. I would really get back into cycling at that point.”

LeMond’s sentiment is shared by others who felt the sport needed to hit bottom before it could experience a significant change and start to move beyond its steroid era and repair its image in the eyes of the common sports fan. He said that increased drug testing, more stringent penalties and the possible overthrow of the sport's governing body have provided reasons for optimism.

However, before it regains credibility, a lot needs to happen, say those involved with the sport. Not only must cycling get cleaner, but it must continue to grow its fan base and find a personality like LeMond and Lance Armstrong, the kind of star who can draw the casual viewer.

First comes the cheating.

Ever since the first bike races, cyclists have tried to gain an advantage. Early on, it was something as simple as beers handed out by monks as riders gained the top of a mountain. According to Phil Liggett, a cycling analyst on the Versus network, everything from aspirin to amphetamines and even a bit of brandy has been used to gain an edge.

“Cycling, unlike any other sport, has a huge colorful history,” Liggett said. “From the day the Tour de France started, from the day they had the first bike races, there was always this great romanticism about cycling.”

It was an attitude about doing anything possible to get over the next mountain or complete the next stage. But before steroids, the element of human suffering never changed.

“When you look at the level of the Tour de France, the top 10 riders are very, very close in ability, but if EPO can lift your performance by 5 percent, that is an awful lot,” Liggett said. “It doesn’t turn a donkey into a race horse, but it turns a race horse into an absolute thoroughbred.”

Kevork Djansezian / AP Greg LeMond, a three-time Tour de France winner, says he finally sees hope for his sport.

The do-whatever-it-takes culture metastasized to the point where riders would take whatever the “mad scientist doctors” — as LeMond calls them — handed out. In 1998 cycling was rocked by the Festina Affair, during which the Festina team’s director admitted to supplying drugs to improve performance; five riders also admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs. LeMond said he thought that incident would be the one to force a change in the sport.

But it did little to alter the performance-enhancing drug culture in cycling.

“The economic incentive to keep it hidden was so great that it perpetuated itself,” LeMond said.

The next year, Armstrong won the Tour de France. He then won six more and became a hero for cycling fans, cancer survivors and anyone who wanted to cheer for a great story.

“When we had Lance Armstrong, we had a transcendent figure,” Versus president Gavin Harvey said. “He was way more than a cyclist, way more than a sports star. He was a rock star and a survivor. He was a once-in-a-generation type of personality.”

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Once Armstrong retired, Landis won the next year, but was stripped of his title after elevated levels of testosterone were found in his tests, and has lost every appeal to that decision. Last year, the Tour was plagued with controversy. Alexandre Vinokourov, one of the favorites to win, was pulled out the race after a positive test and Michael Rasmussen, another favorite, was stripped of the yellow jersey in mid-race.

“I think the sport was rocked, but it hasn’t gone over the cliff,” Liggett said.

Throughout last year’s Tour, Liggett began to despair, because something new seemed to come to light every day and he seemed to spend more time studying drugs than cycling. However, throughout the combination of right and left jabs in the form of new stories of misbehavior, people continued to watch the Tour. In fact, according to Versus, 20.5 million households watched the race, which is more than any other year.

“They’re still there,” Harvey said. “They’re watching it. They love the sport and I think they’re just able to separate the cheating and the scandals and the dopers and everybody else from the sport they love and from the event they love.”