Pinarello Dogma F8

When you unveil the successor to the machine on which the last two editions of the Tour de France have been won, you make a shout about it – and that’s exactly what Pinarello have done with the launch of the Dogma F8.

“This is a bike on which I know I can win another Tour de France,” said Froome when the  Dogma F8 broke cover on Wednesday – though he would say that.

What we know for now, however, is that the Dogma F8 – or Dogma Faster 8, named so as it’s the eighth incarnation of the Italian firm’s range-topper – is Pinarello’s first aero road bike. It’s a machine with a distinctly British flavour, too, with Jaguar (another of Team Sky’s sponsors) drafted in to consult on aerodynamics.

The result is a machine which is markedly different to the outgoing Dogma 65.1 Think 2 on which Froome and Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France in 2013 and 2012 respectively. Pinarello’s iconic wavy fork and seatstays have been significantly toned down and airfoil tube profiles dominate a frameset said to be a staggering 40 per cent more aerodynamic than its predecessor.

The new Dogma F8 race bike, by far the best bike I have ever ridden. Thank you @Jaguar and @Pinarello_com: http://t.co/ORuDrsRXKG

— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) May 29, 2014

Pinarello also claim the Dogma F8 is 120g lighter, 12 per cent stiffer and 16 per cent ‘more balanced’. Froome won the 2013 Tour de France by more than four minutes – the biggest winning margin since 1997 – and the Kenyan-born Brit appears to have an even more powerful weapon at his disposal for 2014.