“Every time I train in Italy, I risk my life. I have come here to cycle many times and every time I am afraid because the traffic on Italian roads is sometimes a bit criminal. They are building beautiful cycle paths, but it takes a lot of effort.” The words of Tadej Pogačar, pronounced the day after winning the Milano-Sanremo, are not just a vent. They are a signal. When one of the global symbols of modern cycling defines training in Italy as risky for their life, the issue is no longer just about sports, but systemic. Safety and culture thus become two decisive variables not only for those who cycle, but for those who produce, distribute, and sell bicycles. From our point of view, this is where we need to start to read the data presented by Confindustria Ancma (in-depth on pages 10 and 11). The Italian market closes 2025 with a new negative sign: 1,303,000 units sold between bikes and eBikes, down 4% compared to 2024. Traditional bikes drop to 1,047,000 pieces (-3%), while eBikes stop at 256,000 (-7%). But the overall figure alone risks being misleading. To truly understand it, it is necessary to enter the sales channels: while large distribution and online show signs of resilience, the real “seriously ill” remains the specialized store, as also emerges from the third episode of our investigation “The Charge of the 101” dedicated to Italian stores. A contained decrease in percentages, but deep in implications. Because behind that -4% hides a structural transformation: if other channels advance, the most identity-preserving sector retreats. And this is the critical point. Not only because the store represents the heart of the supply chain, but because it is the place where the bicycle becomes an experience, culture, relationship. If that stronghold weakens, the entire system loses balance. And while Italy struggles, the global scenario tells equally complex dynamics. Shifting our gaze to the East, a slowdown emerges that cannot be ignored. Taiwan records a significant decrease in exports, especially in the eBike segment. A figure that reflects not only a conjunctural phase, but a deeper redefinition of industrial balances. From the first quarter of 2019 to today, the overall value of Taiwanese exports has decreased by 37%, dropping from 15 billion to 9.4 billion dollars. On the eBike front, exports to the European Union remain substantially stable (about 50,000 units), while the overall decrease of 15% compared to 2025 is mainly caused by the US market, which is down by 54%. In other words: the crisis is not local, but systemic. As we know today, the customer is informed, aware, often already oriented before even entering the store. But precisely for this reason, it is more difficult to interpret. They are not simply looking for a product: they are looking for a correct choice. And this is where a decisive game for retail is played. The winner is not the one with the most stock or the one who lowers prices the most, but the one who can read (and understand) the customer. The point of sale must become a space for interpretation, where technical competence and relational skills merge to build value. Because in a suffering market, the difference is not made by the bicycle that is sold, but by the way the customer is guided to choose it. And here the thread is reconnected. Safety, culture, market, distribution, relationship are not separate themes, but parts of the same system. A system that today shows evident fragilities, but also equally clear margins of evolution. Safety creates the conditions for cycling, culture creates the motivations to do so, and retail creates the experience that transforms an interest into a choice. Without one of these elements, the system weakens. This is why the current moment, despite its complexity, represents a decisive passage. It is not just about overcoming a negative phase, but about redefining the foundations on which to build the future of the sector. Because (and we are sure of it) the market may restart, but it can never truly do so without safety and culture.
Davide L. Bertagna davide.bertagna@mag-net.it
