The UCI president is worried about the riders. They're going too fast, too quickly. Bicycles are increasingly streamlined, scales too frequently visited, applications ready to tell you how much you've consumed and how much you're entitled to replenish. He's concerned about a life too rigidly scheduled, at fixed and predetermined intervals. Everyone with a scale, few with small wallets, since they're all now with muscular legs ready to battle from start to finish.

Full throttle, always and anyway, as if there's no tomorrow. Life is now Claudio Baglioni has been singing for forty years, and riders live it intensely, between withdrawals and wind tunnel tests to please an increasingly demanding audience, also because they've been spoiled. Think about when Pogacar will stop running away hundred kilometers from the finish line. Think about when Evenepoel will stop chasing him. Think about when Van der Poel will come to terms with it, just like Vingegaard and Del Toro, Pidcock and Van Aert and everything will return to a "normalization" that sounds like mediocrity. Let's hold onto this high-profile cycling that barely makes riders smile - those others who can't keep up with these guys - but actually delights us fans, even those who know little about cycling but have been drawn back precisely by a Pogacar who does such exceptional things, making them accessible to everyone: this is called promotion.

Returning to the concerns of the world cycling number one, President Lappartient is worried about the lost smiles of riders, about "burnout" or professional exhaustion syndrome. That state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress that plagues the minds of many athletes of all ages. It manifests as fatigue and is recognized by the WHO as an "occupational phenomenon". In short, a full-blown professional illness.

But the problem isn't the races, nor the riders or their teams, but precisely those claiming to be concerned: the UCI. Riders today all earn very well, but most have lost the lightness of living the most beautiful job in the world, the one they dreamed of doing since childhood. The "human capital" is being severely tested because the calendars are tough, competition is tough, and collecting points around the world is extremely tough, because the mechanism is diabolical, exasperating to the point of madness. Teams can't opt out: if you want to play, these are the engagement rules. And to play, you must invest millions of euros for the men's team, the women's team, the "must" boys and girls, until they'll probably invent junior teams too. Monster budgets are needed to assemble teams of almost 200 staff members. There's no escape. There's no other way to repay those spending thirty to sixty million euros annually. They're companies, which now have almost no companies behind them, but sovereign states, funds, nations, and flagship multinationals of entire countries. There's less passion and more pressure: there's nothing to laugh about.

RECORD WOMEN'S TOUR. This year the Women's Tour de France had more viewers than Roland Garros. "Viewership for women's cycling is continuously increasing and this makes us happy - said David Lappartient -. Particularly, the viewership of the last stage of the women's Tour was higher than all mountain stages of the men's Tour. Who would have thought this five years ago, when the women's Tour didn't even exist?" We should perhaps all reflect on these words and this question, not just Rcs Sport & Events, but us fans, who struggle to consider women's sports equal to men's. Obviously, no doctor is prescribing us to watch the Women's Giro, even though I really like it. But perhaps it's time to ask ourselves why women on bicycles aren't so appealing here.

HEART'S OPTIMISM. Tadej lost the padel tournament organized in Rovato by his managers Johnny and Alex Carera, as well as the simulator challenge. He lost and, in a sense, this is already a year-end news in itself. For next year, we'd be content to see those guys do the same numbers they did this year with the lightness of those unaware they're doing them, and us Italians inserting ourselves more and more into that small group of phenomena where we could also re-enter with some new element to feel a bit phenomenal ourselves. It's a small dream, a desire supported by several undeniable elements of recovery. The Italian cycling movement is here and fights alongside them. It's hope and wish. Pessimism of reason, optimism of will? Optimism of the heart. Merry Christmas..

Editorial from tuttoBICI December issue