PARIS, France - There were no smartly painted team buses the size of 18-wheelers and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, only cramped station wagons and, later, campers. The press corps was an intimately sized group that, by and large, was only interested in the pedaling strategies, not the doping secrets. TV? No way you could pick up the Tour de France live in any U.S. market. It was nearly a quarter of a century ago - 1986 - when Jim Ochowicz delivered the first American team to the Tour, a summer after he had broken the same ground at Giro d'Italia. Ochowicz's sponsor was the Texas-based Southland Corp., which owned the 7-Eleven convenience stores. And that really confused the locals. Back then, hardly anybody in Europe knew what a stop-and-go was, and French ?piceries, no matter how big or small they were, certainly didn't keep their doors open until 11 p.m. 'It was a different world, just a totally different event than you see today,' said Ochowicz, who now is the co-owner of the BMC Racing Team that finished its inaugural Tour de France on Sunday. 'Everything was much smaller. And, when we arrived at the start (in 1986), probably most of the other teams - except for the Italians, who'd seen us the year before - had no idea who we were.' Although American Greg LeMond was a known Tour commodity and would win his first yellow jersey that July, he lived in Europe, spoke French and rode for a prestigious Bernard Hinault-led French machine. The idea of a little U.S. team competing in France's great race was viewed as quaint, a transient curiosity. But not to 'Och,' which is what everybody in cycling has always called him. This was no publicity stunt, no flight of fancy. A former Olympic cyclist, he had world-class riders in his fold, guys with names like the five-gold-medal winning speed-skater Eric Heiden and the gold-medal winning cyclist Davis Phinney. His intentions were to put down permanent roots in the world's two most prestigious bike races. And the 7-Eleven team did just that. It even won the Giro with Andy Hampsten in 1988 and, after Motorola took over the sponsorship in 1991, Ochowicz introduced guys with names like Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie to the Tour de France peloton. Och's ongoing legacy? The red BMC Racing Team bus was one of four belonging to American teams - a Tour first - parked at the Place de la Concorde on Sunday afternoon. When the latest Tour wrapped up on the Champs Elys?es with Spain's Alberto Contador winning for the second consecutive year after 21 grueling racing days and 2,263 miles traveled, both Armstrong and Hincapie again crossed the finish line, with Hincapie wearing the U.S. national champion's jersey with the BMC Racing Team logo. It was his 15th Tour, one shy of Joop Zoetemelk's all-time record. Waiting was Ochowicz, who gave him his first start in 1996. 'I could have raced George in 1995,' he said. 'I felt like he was probably ready. But he was pretty young (22) and I didn't want to push him. I think he's still mad at me for it.' Ochowicz didn't rush any of his charges, says Frankie Andrieu, a member of the 1995 Motorola Tour team, and that's why they've been able to hang around for so long. 'Och was really great in handling his young riders,' Andrieu said. 'He brought a new approach to the sport that way. He didn't burn anybody out.' Ochowicz's previous Tour was in 1996, after which Motorola dropped its sponsorship no doubt in large part because the star rider - Armstrong - was a huge disappointment that year, abandoning the Tour and faring poorly in the Atlanta Olympics. Motorola's executives concluded were only throwing good money after bad. Of course, he hadn't yet been diagnosed with cancer - or, after beating cancer, collected seven yellow jerseys. 'Internal politics, management changes and a policy difference' were behind Motorola's decision to bail out of cycling, Ochowicz told VeloNews' John Wilcockson in Wilcockson's book, Lance Armstrong, The World's Greatest Champion. 'They made a big mistake in my opinion. It was a pity because we had the next generation coming through. I was disappointed.' Ochowicz's Tour encore has brought frustrations and disappointments, too. Although Cadel Evans, BMC's lead rider, had fought his way into first place after the seventh stage in the Jura, the twice former runner-up from Australia dropped like a rock after suffering a broken bone in his elbow in a fluky fall only a couple of miles from the start on the one day he got to wear the yellow jersey. Also, Armstrong, a close friend since the Motorola days (Ochowicz was at the Texan's side for some of the worst days after his cancer surgeries) dropped off the yellow-jersey radar screen after a fall of his own not long after Evans' header. And Ochowicz arrived in France trailing clouds of controversy the same as Armstrong, having become entangled as well in confessed drug cheat Floyd Landis' efforts to bring down most of the major names in American cycling with him. Landis accused Ochowicz of giving tacit approval to doping while serving as a consultant for the drug-scandal-plagued Phonak team, which went out of business soon after Landis was stripped of his 2006 yellow jersey following a positive test for artificial testosterone in his system. The Tour had given BMC - Andy Rihs, its other owner was the man behind Phonak - a wild-card invitation before Landis unloaded. If he had launched his double-barreled attack a couple of months earlier, it's possible Ochowicz wouldn't be here. Further, BMC's doctor is Massimo Testa, who served in the same capacity for Ochowicz's 7-Eleven, Motorola and Phonak teams. Testa, who hired on right out of medical school in Pavia, Italy, when he heard 'about a U.S. cycling team that needed some medical cover in the Giro (in '85),' has long admitted he schooled the riders back in the 1990s on the subject of a new performance-enhancing drug called EPO. Not to advocate its use, he said, but to make sure they understood how it worked and what its dangers might be. Then there are Ochowicz's ties to former Tailwind Sports owner Thomas Weisel, who employed him at his San Francisco investment firm and is now being investigated by the feds because of what Landis says happened inside the U.S. Postal Service team operated by Tailwind. Landis claims the team had a systematic doping program that helped Armstrong to win his seven Tour championships. Like Armstrong - of whom Och says, 'The Lance I know is the Lance I love' - Ochowicz insists he's guilty of no wrongdoing, that his conscience is as clear as it can be and he sleeps fine every night. Unlike Armstrong, he plans to return to many more Tours with BMC. 'We had some bad luck with Cadel, but we did get the yellow jersey and it's been a great experience,' Ochowicz said. 'We worked hard for the wild card. It was never guaranteed we'd get in so soon. Our goal was 2011 or 2012. But I think we've earned our keep. The Tour likes the way we've raced. We've learned a lot about what we can do better and we're planning on being back for at least five more years.' He laughed. 'I've tried to get away, but the sport just keeps sucking me back in,' he said. And the sport is the better for it, insists Hincapie, another ex-Postal rider implicated by Landis. 'I hope to break the participation record,' he said, 'But, if it's going to happen, it will be with Och. I won't ride for anybody else.' dale.robertson@chron.com XXX - End of Story3D 