Chris Froome’s Pinarello Dogma F8
Chris Froome’s Pinarello Dogma F8
With back-to-back Tour de France wins in the bag for the Pinarello Dogma 65.1 Think 2, the launch of the Italian marque’s new machine was eagerly awaited.
And it came in the form of the Dogma F8 – Pinarello’s firstly aero-flavoured road bike and a machine designed in conjunction with fellow Team Sky sponsor Jaguar.
Of course, Froome had a Tour to forget as he crashed out on stage five after already taking a heavy tumble the previous day, but the Kenyan-born Brit bounced back to finish second overall at the Vuelta a Espana.
So what of the machine on which he pushed Alberto Contador all the way for the red jersey?
The eighth incarnation of Pinarello’s flagship model dispenses of the ‘wavy’ fork and seatstays of its predecessor, with the frame adopting a series of truncated airfoil tube profiles in a bid to cheat the wind, alongside an aero-profiled seatpost and a rear derailleur cable which exits from the back of the dropout to reduce turbulence.
All that makes for a claimed 47 per cent improvement in aerodynamic performance compared to the Dogma 65.1 Think 2 (reduced to 6.4 per cent when the rider is taken into account), while the new chassis is also said to be 120g lighter and 12 per cent stiffer than its predecessor.
When we spotted Froome’s new machine at the Criterium du Dauphine, its first competitive outing, the frame was dressed in a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, save for the Osymetric chainrings, as well as a Shimano Dura-Ace C50 rear wheel and C35 front wheel. Team-mate Geraint Thomas, whose bike we profiled at the Tour de France, used the standard issue Dura-Ace chainring.
The Pinarello Dogma F8 features in the RCUK100 – RoadCyclingUK’s definitive guide to the 100 best products for 2015. Coming soon.