If the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland years ago introduced the notion of an "un-birthday", yesterday Marco Bonarrigo created that of... un-presentation. This is how our appreciated Corriere della Sera colleague defined the evening where he gathered in the Bergognone Hall of the Nerviano Municipality (in the Upper Milan area) our director Pier Augusto Stagi in the role of moderator, and illustrious guests such as Cristiano De Rosa, Gianni Bugno, Beppe Saronni, Antonio La Torre (professor and technical director of Italian track and field) and, connecting remotely, Luca Guercilena. The occasion, almost a pretext, is the release of Bonarrigo's book "Pogacar, il re schivo" published by Solferino Libri, where the author, searching for the humanity of cycling in a historical period where sports and its heroes are increasingly less approachable and narratable in person, rediscovers such humanity in the absolutely normal (or normally extraordinary) life of the phenomenon Tadej. To do this, Bonarrigo traveled to Slovenia to the places of the UAE superstar, seizing the moment to also recognize the exceptional work done by the ex-Yugoslav country in promoting sports from a young age.

A decisive moment in Pogacar's history was then recounted by Saronni, who made him sign a pre-agreement to turn professional through a private contract, following a "triangulation of recommendations" from Andrej Hauptman and Fabrizio Bontempi, complete with an anecdote about a Giro del Friuli stage where a U23 Tadej joked in Slovenian with Hauptman and then won with incredible ease by attacking exactly where he had declared in the conversation with the sports director by the car. Under Saronni's astonished eyes, which would become those of cycling lovers in the years to come.

Among these cycling lovers is also a great sports man like prof. La Torre, admiring the joy and enthusiasm transmitted by the "Slovenian kid" with his way of racing and attacking. Moreover, a comparison with the world of athletics could not be missed, a parallel that takes the shape of a... high jump, very high, a pole vault to be precise: Pogacar like Duplantis, undisputed champions but loved by everyone, for the good they do for the movement and the freshness in their approach and communication.

A view fully shared by an opposing manager of Pogacar and UAE, namely Guercilena. Here the discussion begins to expand and embrace the broader systems of cycling, as intended by Bonarrigo and Stagi for this un-presentation. The Lidl Trek team manager spoke about the hyper-professionalization of this sport, with top teams exceeding 200 employees and 35 million annual budget, and launched a prediction: in the future, the best ProTeams will merge into a World Tour of about 25 teams and the Professional category will disappear.

Bugno had different hopes, completely diverging from the line held up to that point. Spearhead of the party that considers Pogacar's cycling "predictable" the superchampion born in Ruegg outlined his recipe for the future: reduction of World Tour to 10 or maximum 12 teams, to give much more space to ProTeams in major races and thus improve talent growth and redistribution of forces in play; regarding redistribution, TV rights should be destined for teams as well, not just organizers; redesigning race routes, increasingly moving towards circuits to encourage the public to come and watch races. And at that point, as already suggested by several organizers, in a specific point of the circuit where most of the show and spectators are concentrated, provide paid areas with specific services.

Finally, a classy conclusion by De Rosa. Today's cycling is a laboratory of ideas that makes being bicycle builders super stimulating, but especially in Italy, it's hindered by the at times tragic problem of road safety, which damages lovers and users of one of the most formidable instruments of freedom for human beings: the bicycle.