M&A: deals reshaping the bicycle industry.
For two decades Astana has been pro cycling's most resilient near-death experience. In 2024 it was stranded at the bottom of the WorldTour, facing relegation; a year later it finished fourth. The difference is Chinese money - but the 'first Chinese WorldTour team' label is looser than it looks.
KKR took Accell private for €1.56 billion in 2022 — the largest deal in cycling's history. Three years later it had written off roughly €1.1 billion in equity and ceded control to lenders. A boom-era bet that met cyclical reality.
When a framebuilder synonymous with Tour de France winners takes institutional money, the business of bicycles stops being a family affair. Pinarello's trajectory is a window onto how cycling's heritage brands are being professionalised — and what gets gained and lost in the process.
In May 2020 the most storied name in Italian framebuilding sold a majority stake to an Abu Dhabi fund. Five years on, with sales reportedly tripled, the deal looks less like heritage changing hands and more like a map of where cycling's capital now lives.
