Geez, you had to go and pull the "60 mph Bionic Legs" card, didn't you? Can we leave Lee Majors out of this discussion, please? Poor guy hasn't had a decent series in decades.
My idea to solve the whole "doping in cycling" problem is to return to the old days. BIDT, every few years, a talented affable young rider would show promise. The organizers of the race liked the cut of his jib, he had a good attitude, loved the sport and raced hard, knew who buttered his bread, and most importantly kept his mouth shut and didn't rat on his friends. Such a rider could make a lot of money for the sport and generate lots of publicity. Especially if he started winning lots of races.
So race organizers (I suspect) sort of winked and turned a blind eye to doping allegations made against their Golden Boy, concealed positive test results, etc., all for the good of the sport. The sport and the young star had a symbiotic relationship, one that made a lot of people a lot of money. Why upset the apple cart? Besides, bike racing is just entertainment, not much different than WWF Wrestling. Bring on the soap opera aspect, the ridiculous tabloid stories behind the race, one rider's mother dies and he wins a stage in her honor, rider "A" hates rider "B" and talks trash about him, rumors swirl around about riders cheating with electric motors, and in the words of Phil Ligget "riders make reputations, and riders lose reputations". This soap opera aspect is the real point of the race (and making $$$) not necessarily who wins or whether they won fairly or not. Who really cares anyway, this is not life and death matters we are dealing with here.
I say, let the race organizers run THEIR race the was they want, and the pearl-clutching anti-doping zealots can tune in to clean sports like horse racing or body building.
