Jim Ochowicz and his 30-year climb to the pinnacle of cycling

Two-dozen friends and relatives greeted Jim Ochowicz when he returned from the Tour de France to his lake house in Hartland. They all wore yellow, the color of victory.

The win in cycling's most prestigious race and the ensuing celebration came earlier than the president and general manager of the BMC Cycling Team had expected. It's an odd thought, considering he had worked for three decades to claim the ultimate victory.

The Milwaukee native, an Olympian, founded Team 7-Eleven in 1981, put the first American team ever in the Tour de France and became one of the most significant figures in U.S. Cycling.

The story of that ground-breaking team is now documented in a book, "Team 7-Eleven: How an Unsung Band of American Cyclists Took on the World- and Won."

The book details the 7-Eleven rise and successes: Andy Hampsten's victory in the Giro d'Italia, and stage winds in the tour.

For Ochowicz, his quest to win cycling's greatest prize seemed to die, unfulfilled, when Motorola pulled its sponsorship in 1996 and the one-time construction worker went to work as a stockbroker in San Francisco.

A decade after his induction into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame, Ochowicz found a second chance when he joined the BMC team, launched by Andy Rihs, in 2008. Australian Cadel Evans won the tour for that squad three years later, ahead of the schedule Ochowicz envisioned upon his return to the ProTour.

On a break in the racing schedule - and his duties cleaning out his garage - the victor shared his thoughts on a 30-year climb.

Close with 7-Eleven: "We were real close. Andy Hampsten was our star player in those days. He won the Tour of Italy in 1988, which is one tier down. It's not the pinnacle of the sport but it's considered one of the crowns. We won that and he came back and got 8th in the Tour de France that next year.

We won stages, the individual days during the tour. We won the best young rider one year, the King of the Mountain one year. We were always in contention. We just never got close enough to win it."

Filling the dual roles - for Packer fans to understand - a hybrid of Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson: "It's similar. I'm involved heavily with the player selection for the team and the coaching selection for the team. We have coaches just like other sports do.

"Just like the Packers and Brewers, it starts at the top, right. Everybody underneath has to understand their roles and their responsibilities. You try to pick the right people for those roles and responsibilities, because they affect to a great deal how the players perform."

Cadel Evans, the key signing: We were looking for a quarterback, and we didn't have one at the time. We wanted to get in the Tour and you have to have one if you're going to get selected. We started looking around in the marketplace to see which athletes were available for 2010, the contracts that were free and Cadel's name came up. That's how I approached Cadel.

We needed somebody and he needed somebody, too. He needed a new home. He needed to change teams and he had other options but he wanted to try it with us.

Twenty one stages, 21 game days: "I'm in the race car and John Lelangue is the sports director. He establishes the plan going into the race, before the race starts. What's plan A. As the race gets started, then I get involved with plan B, C, D and F.

"We're constantly changing strategies based on events that are happening in the race. Unlike football and baseball where you're playing against one team at a time, we're playing against 21 other teams at the same time. So there are multiple strategies going on with other teams.

"One of the things, if I'm good at something, I'm good at reading the race, I think, and trying to understand what the other people are trying to do and trying to take advantage of that.

"I'm in that space on a daily basis. It's something I enjoy and something I know."

Drawn from Milwaukee to compete with the best in the world: "I was in a good spot. I had some talent and some good work ethics and the combination of all that put me there into the Olympic family at 20. That was my first real taste of elite sports, and I became addicted to it to a certain degree.

"I liked the ambience around the Olympics. Then I started discovering, 'hey there's more than the Olympics in cycling, there's this thing called the Tour de France.' I started thinking about that.

I never raced in the Tour de France. I never won a world championship or an Olympic medal but I was around people who did. It gave me the chance to look at sports from a different perspective.

"There are just some people that can get up there and do it and it's nice to be around them when they're getting started in their careers, like working with Lance when he started. And working with George Hincapie and Andy Hampsten and Cadel. They're the best of the best, but yet they still need support to do what they do. I'm lucky that I can be around that."

The pinnacle: "This has got to go down as number one. The reason being the Tour de France is the Super Bowl of our sport, and nothing's bigger, nothing's grander, nothing is more prestigious. It's a pretty easy call. Had we done some other things in the tour and not won it, it wouldn't be quite as significant, but having won it, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something like that and sometimes you never get a second chance."

Pressure at the top: "We have to go back and defend. I went to the Super Bowl with my son, and that was great. The Packers, when they're thinking about their future, they have to go back and defend. That puts you in a different position than trying to get into contention. You're more aware of your responsibilities and more competitive everywhere you race. You have to demonstrate on a regular basis that you're the best.

"I think the pressure is good. We don't win a lot of races, that's not our style, but we're prepared to contend everywhere. If you do that the winning comes where it's supposed to come."