Armstrong, back after a retirement of more than three years, and Basso, returning from a two-year doping suspension, will be among the familiar faces at the starting line Saturday. They may not recognize their former employee.

One of Vande Velde’s first memories of bike racing is hearing the hiss of a tire pump.

At 6 a.m., his father, John, would inflate the tires on his own bike before his daily ride. Christian, about 5 then, would wake up, eyes wide, and bound out of bed. Together, they would ride around their neighborhood here, around a lake, down tree-lined streets, past houses that stood dark, still and silent.

“I bought him a blue-and-white Schwinn, and he had the training wheels off in two hours, just two hours!” said John Vande Velde, 60, who is of Belgian heritage. “It always came so easily to him.”

Afterward, John Vande Velde would drop off his son at home. Christian remembers watching his father, his hero, pedal away until he was swallowed by the horizon.

John Vande Velde, a Hall of Famer, was a three-time national champion in the individual pursuit and a two-time Olympian  1968 and 1972  on the track. He also appeared in the classic cycling film “Breaking Away” as an Italian bike racer, one of the Team Cinzano bad guys.

Vande Velde was mesmerized by his father’s fame, which his dad tried to counter by emphasizing schoolwork. But he followed in his father’s footsteps anyway, eventually becoming a two-time Olympian himself.

Image Vande Velde with his daughter Uma and wife, Leah. Credit... John Gress for The New York Times

At times, though, John Vande Velde worried about his son’s confidence. He recalled a day when his son was just a boy, playing with a toy Corvette at his grandparents’ house. His grandmother had told him that he would one day have a real Corvette.