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Giro Tech 2013 - Sir Bradley Wiggins' Pinarello Graal TT bike…maybe

Pinarello may have launched their new Bolide TT bike on Friday, but Team Sky and Sir Bradley Wiggins are sticking with what they know for the Giro TTT

Pinarello launched their new Bolide TT bike on Friday just in time for the Giro - or so it was assumed - and a very serious bit of kit it looks too… but maybe they shouldn't have rushed. Seems Team Sky are sticking to the Graal - the bike they know.

Our man Simon was loitering by the Pinarello stand yesterday in Naples when he spotted this bike on display. Simon was assured by the nice man from Pinarello that this was the actual TT bike Sir Bradley would be piloting today - and it certainly looks like it. It was only polite to pop off a few shots - although the stand was too crowded to get a pic of the whole bike - and our boy was too polite to get his elbows out (probably afraid of being jostled by men with stick-on sideburns - ed). Now this might not be the actual bike Wiiggins is riding today, he's certainly on a Graal that looks very like it - so even if it isn't it could well be his spare bike.

Apart from its natty black and yellow paint job, what else stands out about this bike? Well the two things that struck us were that although the overall position looks quite low the tri-bars seem to be set quite high - we're not experts on Wiggo's TT position but… Also, interesting to note, if this is Wiggin's machine is that this bike is running mechanical Dura Ace rather than the Di2 version that you might have expected to see. Mind you, after the much celebrated 'bike-parking' incident - attributed by some to the Di2 battery running out* just at as a crucial gear change was being made - maybe Wiggins is putting his faith in a mechanical set up this time out.

At Friday's launch Pinarello claimed that the Bolide offered a five per cent weight advantage and more importantly a 15 per cent aerodynamic advantage over the Graal. But maybe in Team Sky's thinking working with what you know going in to the crucial team time trial so early in the race trumps any marginal gains that might be on offer from a new bike as yet untested in battle… or maybe Pinarello simply don't have enough of them yet to kit out two teams (Movistar also ride Pinarello) and we'll see a handful of star riders on them in the individual TT later in the race with a full roll-out for the Tour.

Wiggins fans +sideburns enjoying the pre-race atmos in Naples yesterday

*The alleged problem with the battery was not caused because Di2 batterys run out too quickly on the contrary the story is that because they last so long a hapless mechanic had failed to charge it up.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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12 comments

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Decster | 10 years ago
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So why has Wiggins stopped using the 'marginal gains' OSymetric chainset?

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Super Domestique replied to Decster | 10 years ago
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Decster wrote:

So why has Wiggins stopped using the 'marginal gains' OSymetric chainset?

Not sure how true it is but on the commentary on eurosport a few weeks back they mentioned that it seemed it was since Shimano changed its crankset which only allowed shimano rings.

By 'allowed' I believe they meant as in 4 arm rather than 5 on the spider. If anyone calls it a spider anymore!

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euanlindsay | 10 years ago
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Aye Tony. Just confirming  3

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Tony Farrelly | 10 years ago
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Check out the headline and indeed the story euan

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euanlindsay | 10 years ago
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Super Domestique | 10 years ago
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Tudo bein

My wife is from a costal village just outside Lisbon.

Better get this back on track.

Nice Pinarello.  1

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CarlosFerreiro | 10 years ago
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Faro, 'tava muito fixe mesmo  16

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CarlosFerreiro | 10 years ago
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Joke "Portuguesed" version of my name my friends made up when I lived there for a couple of years  3

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Super Domestique replied to CarlosFerreiro | 10 years ago
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CarlosFerreiro wrote:

Joke "Portuguesed" version of my name my friends made up when I lived there for a couple of years  3

Cool.  3 what part?

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CarlosFerreiro | 10 years ago
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UCI regs allow a slightly longer reach on tri bars when a mech shifter is used, compared with an electronic shifter, because of where the measurement is made.

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Super Domestique replied to CarlosFerreiro | 10 years ago
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CarlosFerreiro wrote:

UCI regs allow a slightly longer reach on tri bars when a mech shifter is used, compared with an electronic shifter, because of where the measurement is made.

Totally OT but very Portuguese sounding username there Carlos.

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Super Domestique | 10 years ago
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Hope those guys have now removed those 'burns to keep up with Brad's New streamline look.

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