January, the experts tell us, can be a tricky month, one devoid of motivation and purpose. To help stave off the winter blues, some book a holiday, and others dust off the turbo trainer and rededicate themselves to exercise. The great British January trend of the 2020s, of course, is to watch and talk about the Traitors, constantly, on a loop, until we all turn into Claudia Winkleman.
Here at road.cc, however, we simply count down the days, shaking with excitement, until it’s time to call up our pal Rory Hitchens to conduct our annual podcast-based check-up on the state of the cycling industry. Yes, we’re that cool.
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And this year, after a period of intense suffering, long-time cycling industry stalwart Dr Rory (not a real doctor) is more optimistic than ever about the health of the bike sector – and he’s usually pretty optimistic, to be honest.
Not that 2026 hasn’t been without its aches and pains, of course. Already this year, Rapha – whose carrying value was reduced by two thirds, from £169m to £67m, following eight years of consecutive loss a months ago – announced that it was closing its Manchester clubhouse, as well as half of its American shops.
Scottish brand Endura, meanwhile, is packing up and heading for London as part of parent company Pentland Group’s “streamlining” efforts, leaving plenty of staff behind, and Brompton’s financial accounts revealed that the folding bike brand’s post-tax losses have doubled. The spectre of Donald Trump and tariffs also continues to linger over the industry as we start 2026.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, however. Rory, famously (at least for us), keeps a list of industry-related stories on his phone. And the Greenleaves Cycling agency founder tells the podcast that the number of “disaster stories” on that app is “shrinking right down”.
“Changes had to happen,” he says. “There was this perfect storm and no one knew what was going on, we were getting battered left, right, and centre, and the start of that was the Wiggle-Chain Reaction situation.
“So then last year we were in this sort of heavy swell and I would say it’s gone to a sort of a calm swell right now.
“And what I mean by that, is there was still a lot of movement, particularly behind the scenes higher up in the industry, things that aren’t reported on – in terms of stock movements, supply chains, overdue invoices, insolvencies, finances, realignment of overseeing companies or holding companies looking at their assets in the bike industry.
“All of that continues to adjust, but it’s calmed down a lot. And we can see that by the reduction in the headlines.”
Rory reckons the turmoil of the past few years has forced cycling brands to look in the mirror and “be honest with themselves”.
Those who succeeded in doing so, along with those who remained agile and nimble, diversifying where possible (he points to the success of gravel in infiltrating the wider outdoor and adventure market, and exemplified in the recent success of smaller, more niche trade shows), and most importantly surviving, now have some breathing space, he says.
“Overall, I would say that the health check on the situation at the moment is good. It can always get better. And it’s got a long way to go to sort out some of these headline issues. But yeah, everyone seems to genuinely be going like, we’re okay now. We can breathe. And actually, we’ve made some plans and we’ve put those plans in action and it’s working.
“And if all that is good, we as consumers benefit, don’t we? Because we start to see new products, exciting things. We get the support and the backup we want from a brand. If you’ve bought a bike and the brand no longer exists, where are you with support, backup, warranty? All those question marks go out of the way if you know things are stable.
“The playing field has levelled off a bit. There are fewer people on that playing field now, but the ones that are, they know what they’re doing – in my opinion!”
Survive ‘til 25 was the cycling industry’s motto for the past few years – but where do we go from here?
“If we’ve got ’25 behind us and we’re alive in ’26, then we’ve gone through it,” Rory says. “And I feel like there’s an optimism now that people are like, ‘phew, I either dodged a few bullets or actually I know what I’m doing’.
“And you know what, it was time to learn a few lessons. Maybe the industry is actually getting to a place where it always needed to be. It needed a good shake-up, it really did. And it still does, to be honest.
“It still doesn’t have good systems in place, a brand still doesn’t know where a dealer sold their bike and who they sold it to, they can’t support the customer and the dealer. With simple stuff like that, our industry is still a bit backward.
“But we are definitely moving forward into a better space. We’re back on track, but we’re wiser.”
Speaking of wiser… In part two of this week’s podcast, Ryan and Dan get their maps out – and load up Premier Inn on the browser – as we look ahead to the Tour de France’s bumper six-stage visit to the UK in 2027 and assess what it could mean for the future of British cycling. Can you tell we’re excited?
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