With 2025 coming to an end, it's time for our annual look back.

There's no denying it: 2025 has been a very demanding year here at Bikenomist. We celebrated our 10th anniversary as a company, but it felt like a long climb — easing off at times, only to bite back even harder when we least expected it.

And there was no shortage of setbacks along the way — some of them deeply tragic — which put us to a severe test. External conditions often didn't help either: the cycling industry has yet to emerge from its crisis, leading to significant cuts in advertising spend by many bicycle and component manufacturers.

But despite all this, throughout 2025 we achieved some meaningful successes — and we'd like to share them with you here.

Bikeitalia keeps growing

Artificial intelligence is increasingly cannibalizing the traffic of those who produce content for the web — even major publishers have reported losing a quarter of their traffic to AI tools. Over the past 12 months, Bikeitalia grew its traffic by 89% compared to 2024, consistently topping 2 million page views a month. How? By obsessively focusing on quality: careful attention to news, well-researched topics, skilled authors, and respect for our readers' trust.

We also released a series of new free ebooks, including the Complete Guide to Indoor Cycling with Elite, a guide to cycling insurance with Bike Protection, and the third edition of our Guide to Buying Your First Gravel Bike with Wilier Triestina.

The fourth edition of the Cycle Tourism Show

From April 4 to 6, 2025, we organised the fourth edition of the Cycle Tourism Show in Bologna's Piazza Lucio Dalla: 150+ exhibitors and 22,000 visitors, with 40 buyers and tour operators from across Europe meeting exhibitors in more than 1,000 pre-scheduled meetings. During the B2B day we hosted the presentation of the Isnart-Legambiente Cycle Tourism Report, confirming the sector's growth with an economic impact of €9.8 billion — up 54% on the year before.

A new home for the Show

In September we announced that the Cycle Tourism Show is moving: its fifth edition will take place at Padova Fiere, 27–29 March 2026. The main reason was space — the Show outgrew every venue that could still be reached easily on foot, by bike or by train. The move was also guided by a shared vision with the Region of Veneto, the Padua Chamber of Commerce and the City of Padua, aimed at an event that speaks to international markets.

Partnerships that matter

2025 was our year of alliances: we helped strengthen the Italian chapter of Women in Cycling, partnered with Komoot to give Italian cycle tourism destinations more visibility abroad, and signed a commercial partnership with VeloBerlin. And — last but not least — our own Pinar was confirmed as a member of the EuroVelo Council.

The hardest moment

We can't close this review without remembering the hardest moment of the year: the loss of our colleague Barbara Orlandi, who passed away on 8 September after a long illness. She left us countless lessons and a way of approaching life — with lightness and courage, even facing the hardest challenges. That's how we want to face 2026: with a smile, because every day is a gift.

Thank you

Thank you to all of you — partners, clients, readers, friends. Your trust is our driving force, and together we keep promoting the change that cycling represents. Here's to a great 2026 — and thank you, Barbara, more than anyone else.

Originally published on the Bikenomist blog ↗