Pinarello

About

Bike partner Pinarello have provided INEOS Grenadiers with race-winning bikes ever since their WorldTour debut in 2010.

Pinarello has been the main technical partner of the team since its foundation in 2009. The team has raced 17 different models of Pinarello in the world’s biggest events. Six new evolutions of the iconic Dogma frame have also been supplemented by additional lightweight versions in the high mountains.

Following in the footsteps of the Graal, the Bolide time trial bike broke new ground and that success has been further bolstered by the “EGO” version. The team’s Classics aspirations have been furthered by a series of cobbled-focused frames, with the K8 and K10 featuring suspension variants, right up to the full suspension Dogma FS.

The results have been extraordinary, with seven Tour de France wins - an achievement which has led Pinarello to the title of the most decorated bike manufacturer in Tour history, with an unprecedented 12 wins.

The story, however, does not stop there. With the expansion of the Grenadier's off-road programme, Pinarello have continued their history of innovation with the new Dogma XC and Crossista F.

Dogma F

When designing the DOGMA F, Pinarello put handling first. So often, cycling brands focus on weight, but the scales are misleading, and out on the road it’s responsiveness and comfort that matter more than shaving off a few grams. Yes, the complete DOGMA F Disc frame kit is 11% lighter than the F12, but that is a result of Pinarello’s R&D team’s commitment to innovation and new production methods such as 3D-printed titanium componentry.

Close attention has been paid to the seat post, headset, fork, and the Talon cockpit, resulting in a saving of 265 grams compared to the DOGMA F12, while also being 12% stiffer around the bottom bracket, with improved aerodynamics providing significant watt savings.

Bolide F TT

This Pinarello Lab creation is a natural evolution of the Pinarello Bolide; standing as the benchmark of time trial bikes. The development of the Bolide TT focuses upon a drastic reduction in weight, whilst ensuring stiffness and aerodynamic performance remains the same. The final result sees a 350g weight reduction of the frame kit compared with the Bolide, and an overall improvement in aerodynamic performance.

Testing the Pinarello DOGMA XC | Behind the scenes

The Pinarello story

While Pinarello prides itself on leading the pack in modern bike design, it has remained true to its family roots, and the story of the company known as 'Cicli Pinarello', stretching back to 1952, is synonymous with cycling history in the second half of the twentieth century. It is a story of humble origins and hard work; of romance and of glorious success.

Giovanni Pinarello was born, the eighth of 12 brothers, in Catena di Villorba in 1922. Like so many rural Italians, he developed a passion for cycling, began racing, and in 1947, aged 25 and after over 60 victories as an amateur, he turned professional, scoring five wins over the next seven years.

His career as a pro cyclist overlapped, however, with his new vocation - building bicycles. In fact, Giovanni took his first steps as a frame-builder when he was just fifteen, and helped in the Paglianti factory; but the Pinarello family's connections with the industry stretched back even further, to 1922, when Giovanni's cousin, Alessandro, made bikes from a small factory.

In 1952, as his professional career came to an end, Giovanni opened his own factory in Treviso, where Pinarello is still based to this day. But the opening of the factory owed rather a lot to a major disappointment. Giovanni was forced to give up his place in his country's national tour, the 1952 Giro d'Italia, for a promising young Italian rider, Pasqualino Fornara. His sponsor, Bottechia, offered him a small fortune, 100,000 Lire, to miss the race - a sum of money that was invested in the Treviso factory and store.

As he began building bikes, Giovanni Pinarello's connections with the world of professional cycling proved crucial; he knew that by working closely with the top cyclists and teams he would be able to develop race-winning bikes, and that the resulting publicity would cement his reputation as a leading frame-builder, and help his company to grow exponentially.

In 1957 the small la Padovani team raced on Pinarello bicycles, and in 1960 Pinarello took a step into the world of big-time professional racing with his sponsorship of the Mainetti team. Six years later came a first international win - Guido de Rosso's victory in the Tour de l'Avenir. And in 1975 came success in the big one as far as Italians are concerned - the Giro d'Italia, courtesy of Fausto Bertoglio.

In the 1980s Pinarello confirmed itself as one of the world's leading bike manufacturers by winning some of the top races, including the 1981 Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España; the 1984 Olympic road race in Los Angeles; and in 1988 the biggest of all bike races, the 1988 Tour de France, thanks to Pedro Delgado. Then, of course, came Indurain in the 1990s, who, as well as his five Tour victories, won the Giro on two occasions, the Olympic time trial, world time trial and claimed the hour record - all on Pinarello bikes.