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It costs money to operate a service like TF, even if some of the information/content comes from users. $36/year is peanuts. No one is getting rich off this - it's just an attempt to make the service sustainable.

ebikes are here to stay, regardless of anyone's personal opinion. It's a growing market. They will get lighter and the batteries will get smaller. They will also get cheaper over time. I think they have their time and place - mostly for commuting or for older riders. I wouldn't hesitate to get one in 15-20 years when my knees fall apart. The trail access issues are a problem, but everyone's going to have to figure that out because there will only be more of these things. Personally, I don't see any real difference between ebikes and shuttling when it comes to trail access. Earning your turns naturally thins out the crowd and it's part of the sport.

@bridgermurray: Actually the full tuition is 46k, but what's your point? Assuming it was a financial decision, what does the school she went to as a teenager have to do with career decisions today? Our daughter goes to private school outside San Francisco. There are wealthy families for sure, but over half the families receive aid.

If you're talking about the Courtney Group, that's a different Tom Courtney.

@WAKIdesigns: @WAKIdesigns: Right on. Furthermore, when you start to look closely, the lines between nutrition, recovery and doping get very blurry and arbitrary very fast. Some cases are black and white, but most are not. And the "science" of anti-doping is hopelessly inexact. For most positive tests WADA can only establish that the result was most likely caused by doping, but there is still a chance it occurred naturally. Their entire process is laughable when held against modern legal standards. Fairness is a noble goal, but the deck is stacked way against the athletes, even those trying to play fair. And for those who want to make it a moral issue, imagine you've passed on college, devoted your life to bike racing, finally scored a pro contract, are living in a new country where you don't speak the language, and you're all of 22 years old, totally dependent on your new team for the roof over your head and any chance of making your pro career a reality. You could have been clean your whole life and you might struggle with the decision, but it's pretty unfair to come down on the athletes if they are all in on something and only presented with the true cost of admission once they're 99% down the road. The problem is not the riders. It's the people running the sport (UCI and WADA). Make common-sense, realistic rules, enforce due process and be ethical about the rights of the accused - and finally sanction the teams and officials heavily and the riders lightly. It's impossible to take almost any doping case seriously when WADA doesn't hold themselves to anything close to the standard they seek to impose on athletes.