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TECH NEWS

Bikes of the UCI WorldTour: Pinarello Dogma 2 of Team Sky

…and not just Team Sky; it's Cav's own black one with World Championship rainbow bands

There are two teams in the WorldTour circus riding Pinarellos and one of them is our own dear Team Sky, a squad packed full of loveable stars like Bradley Wiggins, Edvald Boasson-Hagen and Chris Froome, winners all and likely to be riding their bikes this season back with the same Cyan Blue livery if the Sky riders at the Australian National Championships this weekend were anything to go by.

We only have until Sunday to see whether they're springing anything like the surprising Rainforest Green bikes they first rolled out for the Tour of Britain in 2010 in honour of their preferred WWF charity; a clue might be this all-black Pinarello Dogma 2 decked out with the World Championship bands and therefore the mount of Sky new boy Mark Cavendish.

The distinctive wavy forks and rear stays, even more accentuated than on the original Dogma mark out this Mark 2 model we previewed at Eurobike, like no other. Ostensibly, they're to improve the ride damping characteristics of the carbon fibre but like the 'curly' Hetchins and E G Bates frames of the 1940s and 50s, we suspect it's more to do with looking different from other carbon frames that do look increasingly generic among the competition although the growing number of 'aero' strategies - see Ridley Noah - is certainly helping with differentation. As ever with bicycles, it's hard to argue when their riders are doing so well.

On componentry, the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 for now still features electronically-shifting 10-speeds with an upgrade due to 11 shortly among the top professionals. When? The Giro d'Italia? More likely the Tour de France we reckon but we'll be finding out for sure in a few weeks when we're treated to our annual press presentation and they give us a nice lunch and ask us nicely not to spill the beans.

What we can tell you now is that Shimano are bringing over to Sky's Pinarellos their own in-house Pro-branded handlebars and massively oversized stems complete with 'Mark Cavendish' signature. There will also be Fizik saddles all round which will sadly spell the end for Bradley Wiggins' 'mod' Prologo. Sad face.


How smart will this look on an all-black Pinarello but will he get away with black shorts?

 


Team Sky at the Cap de Formentor lighthouse on Majorca training camp.

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15 comments

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Baldy1alex | 12 years ago
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may be its just me but the fork ends look rather flimsy it might just be the picture! Any way Go Cav  20

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twist305 | 12 years ago
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well apart from the forks I think it looks ok and nice to see all black , matches my newly purchased all black carbon race machine  16 , on a side note nice to see Bianchi back in the pro peleton.

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to | 12 years ago
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looks awful, they struck gold on the rainforest colors, they looked so nice and they have got rid of them  20

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kaptnkrunch | 12 years ago
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UUUURRRRG. Lots of not very pretty bikes/colour schemes in the tour this year  7

What happened to his specialized sponsorhip deal?

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Bennyboy | 12 years ago
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Wobbly forks and stays?? Who cares, this is a thing of beauty!! Shame I could never afford one. I'm more than happy to trial one if road cc got a spare??

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andyspaceman | 12 years ago
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Is it just me, or is that a compact chainset in that pic? Seems small. Unless it's one of the funky new DuraAce 9000 configurations - 52-36 or 52-38. Which actually make a lot of sense to me.

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yourpaceormine replied to andyspaceman | 12 years ago
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andyspaceman wrote:

Is it just me, or is that a compact chainset in that pic? Seems small. Unless it's one of the funky new DuraAce 9000 configurations - 52-36 or 52-38. Which actually make a lot of sense to me.

You forget that Mr Cavendish is a hobbit, it may seem like a compact chainset to you but to a hobbit....

just think of the scene at The Prancing Pony when Merry and Pippin discover that beer can be bought in pints  3

I must point out that I too am no giant, so this post can in no way be deemed to be sizist

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arrieredupeleton | 12 years ago
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... a saddle with a three legged design? Will it have two noses? Is that UCI friendly?

Next you'll be suggesting the use of disc brakes on high end road bikes. Pah.

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Benjamin Hall | 12 years ago
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When are they going to admit that the wobbly fork thing was a gimmick?

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cat1commuter | 12 years ago
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One word: fugly! I really hate the "Help! I'm melting!" wibbly-wobbly look. And it's asymmetric fork makes no sense whatsoever! How on earth can the load on either fork leg be different?

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Winton | 12 years ago
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Sky also seem to have Pro bits on other riders bikes as well as switching from Prologo to Fizik saddles.

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JonMack | 12 years ago
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I found "What we can tell you now is that Shimano are bringing over to Cavendish's Pinarello bike for Sky the in-house Pro-branded 14cm and massively oversized stem with 'Mark Cavendish' signed along it that was first used with Highroad Sports." really really difficult to read? Might be worth restructuring that sentence.

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notfastenough replied to JonMack | 12 years ago
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+1 re sentence re-structure

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nick_rearden replied to JonMack | 12 years ago
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JonMack wrote:

Might be worth restructuring that sentence.

Blimey, yes, that is a bit of a sentence isn't it? A stream of consciousness that I was finishing off last night before my head hit the keyboard. OK, cover me I'm going in...

Winton wrote:

...switching from Prologo to Fizik saddles.

Yes, good point Winton. I'd missed that which, as Simon here points out, spells the end for Brad's Mod saddle. Let's hope Fizik can work on something equally entertaining. Perhaps a Manx Three Legs design for Cav?

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Martin Thomas | 12 years ago
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Nice bike, but I still think those wobbly forks and stays look a bit comical.

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