We've reached the end of 2025. A year marked, once again, by the crisis in the MTB industry and a revolution in the racing sector that, at least for now, hasn't produced the hoped-for results.
Looking ahead to 2026, the question is inevitable: What would we really like to find in the new year?
The answer, however uncomfortable, is simple and direct: a globalized lowering of price lists, both of the bicycles and of the components.
It's no longer a secret that the crisis in the fat tire industry has two main causes.
The first is campaigns, with full warehouses and overproduction.
The second is of the market, with prices that have exceeded the threshold of sustainability for a large segment of practitioners.
This is not just an Italian problem: it is a widespread, global system that risks undermine the entire sector at its roots.
Cycling – on the road, on dirt roads, in MTB and, why not, even electric – has always been a relatively expensive sport, but accessibleA world that has always lived on numbers: competitors, amateurs, enthusiasts, young people with their first experiences.
MTB, in particular, has historically had a strong appeal among new generations, ensuring renewal, growth and continuity.
Today this mechanism has jammed. The risk, in the medium term, is one emptying of the practitioners' pool, which can't be assessed simply by counting bike park rides. Most bikers, in fact, ride the trails around their homes every day.
And this is where another problem emerges, often underestimated: trail maintenance.
The trails are almost always cleaned, maintained, and made accessible by those who truly live mountain biking. If the number of riders declines, who will take care of the trails? Who will ensure the survival of the heritage that makes this sport possible?
For this reason, looking ahead to 2026, I would like to see a few less investment funds as a member of the MTB companies and a few more cyclists in decision-making roles. Trained professionals, capable of reading the numbers, but also of understanding the sector from the inside, because they live it.
Only in this way will it be possible to return to giving a sector vision, and not just a logic of consumption, to our environment.
