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Tour Tech 2016: Chris Froome's Pinarello Dogma F8 - is this the Tour de France winning bike?

Tried-and-tested equipment for Chris Froome as he aims to win 3rd Tour de France

With the 2016 Tour de France about to start, all eyes are on Team Sky’s Chris Froome and whether he can win the race for a third time. If he does the triple, he’ll do so aboard the same Pinarello Dogma F8 that was first introduced in 2014. 

- 12 ways Team Sky develops those marginal gains

Team Sky’s hotel near Omaha Beach in Normandy was understandably busy when we arrived on Thursday morning, with an intense media spotlight on the British team and its leader. Following the team’s training ride in the rain, we took a closer look at Froome’s race bike before it was washed and prepped for the next day.

It is essentially the same bike with the same equipment that Froome and his teammates have been riding since for the past few seasons, since Pinarello introduced the updated Dogma F8 in 2014. There was no sign of a new version lurking in the back of the Team Sky truck, but it can only be a matter of time before there's a new version, given the typical three-year development cycle.

pinarello chris froome 2016 7.JPG

So similar is the bike, in fact, that we could have just copied and pasted our story from 2014. We haven't of course, and there are some subtle differences worth talking about. The most immediately obvious change is the custom paint job featuring a rhino that celebrates Froome’s Kenyan roots and his support for Unite for Wildlife, a charity that was set up to put an end to the illegal wildlife trade.

A reminder of the key design features of the Dogma F8 in case you’ve not been paying attention for the past couple of years. Pinarello worked with Jaguar to develop a frame that it claims is 12% stiffer, 47% more aerodynamic and 120g lighter than the old Dogma 65.1 Think it replaced. The Dogma F8’s frame is made from Toray T11001K composite and weighs around 860g in a 54cm frame size, according to Pinarello. 

pinarello chris froome 2016 5.JPG

Shimano might have just unveiled a brand new Dura-Ace 9100 groupset, but Team Sky is still relying on the previous version of Dura-Ace Di2. This is a bit of a surprise, equipment manufacturers typically like to use the Tour de France as a huge advert for new products, but we presume the teams will be switching over in the off-season and riding it in 2017. And of course, Team Sky prefers to stick with tried-and-tested equipment in a race of such importance. 

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The neat thing about an electronic groupset is the ability to add extra shift buttons. Froome has the optional climbing shifter pod, stripped of unnecessary plastic casing and therefore saving weight, fitted to the centre of the handlebars. It can’t save more than a handful of grams, but this is a team obsessed with marginal gains remember.

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While all of the team use regular round Dura-Ace chainrings, Chris Froome is still spinning the odd looking Osymetric chainrings, in a 52/38 configuration. The 52 tooth big chainring provides the equivalent of a 56 at the top of the stroke and a 48 at the bottom. It must clearly work for Froome, but it’s interesting that no other Team Sky rider has followed his lead and fitted the same chainrings.

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One detail we’ve not noticed on Froome’s bike in previous years is the installation of pieces of plastic fitted above and below the bottom bracket shell, with a recess for the chain catcher on the piece of plastic fitted below the front mech.

When we asked the team mechanic about the reason for this, he told us it was to prevent the chain falling off using the non-round chainrings. We can’t recall Chris Froome having any incidents with a dropped chain during a race, but we know the racers don’t like to take any chances so it’s probably a case of better to be safe than sorry. 

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Standing 1.86m tall, Froome uses 175mm crank arms rather than the more common 172.5mm crank arms. Meanwhile, there’s an 11-28t cassette out back which should provide all the range he needs for the climbs of the Tour de France.

pinarello chris froome 2016 38.JPG

Froome’s bike is fitted with a 121mm aluminium PRO stem with a couple of carbon spacers below, and an aluminium PRO handlebar. Both are finished with a Team Sky blue stripe, which is now available in the shops. 

pinarello chris froome 2016 23.JPG

A K-Edge out-front mount is used to attach his Garmin computer, which receives power data from the Stages power meter attached to the left crank arm. We’ve spotted double sided Stages prototype power meters in the past, but Froome was using a regular single sided version, the same as you can buy in the shops. 

pinarello chris froome 2016 40.JPG

The Dura-Ace C50 wheel is the most popular wheel in the professional peloton and these were fitted to Froome’s bike. He’ll use these for the flat stages of the race but is likely to swap to a shallow section rim for the mountain stages. Shimano has launched new wheelsets as parts of its overhauled Dura-Ace 9100 groupset, and it’ll be interesting to see if Team Sky use them during the race. 

pinarello chris froome 2016 41.JPG

When it comes to tyre width, 25 is the new 23. Most of the bikes we’ve been looking at this week before the race gets underway, Chris Froome is using Continental Competition ProLtd tubulars in a 25mm width. 

pinarello chris froome 2016 24.JPG

Froome deviates from the regular Elite bottle cages used by the rest of Team Sky with these lightweight Elite Leggero minimalist cages. 

pinarello chris froome 2016 11.JPG

Finally, a Fizik Antares saddle with carbon braided rails is Froome’s preferred saddle shape from the Italian company’s range of saddles. That bracket fitted at the back of the saddle is for the GPS receiver that all Tour bikes are now fitted with. The saddle isn’t level but is fitted with the nose slightly pointing down.

- Team Sky announce Tour de France line-up

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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5 comments

Avatar
Skylark | 7 years ago
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Bit ugly. The finish seems nowhere on par to something like a topend Cannondale or Trek.

Avatar
StraelGuy | 7 years ago
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I agree batchy. Press-fit BB's are the worst thing the bike industry has come up with for years. External BB's are easy to fit and maintain and don't make any irritating noises. It's purely a cost cutting exercise. i took my forks off yesterday to trim the steerer and integrated headsets are the same. My Giant Defy Advanced has one and there are NO cups or races, literally cartridge bearings resting on the fork and sitting in the frame on the carbon.

Down with the bean counters I say no.

Avatar
Batchy | 7 years ago
0 likes

My new bike has an internal bb30 bottom bracket. It started creaking after just 150 miles. I have never had  problems with external bearings on any of my previous bikes and I see that Team Sky 's Pinnarello 's are also equipped with these "old" style b bks. Obviously the tech guys at Sky / Pinnarello know something more that many of the opposing teams.

Or is it just because external bearings are not a complete pain in the arse to replace or service! 

Avatar
Sub4 replied to Batchy | 7 years ago
0 likes

Batchy wrote:

My new bike has an internal bb30 bottom bracket. It started creaking after just 150 miles. I have never had  problems with external bearings on any of my previous bikes and I see that Team Sky 's Pinnarello 's are also equipped with these "old" style b bks. Obviously the tech guys at Sky / Pinnarello know something more that many of the opposing teams.

Or is it just because external bearings are not a complete pain in the arse to replace or service! 

yes, the bearings are so close together, it's no surprise that they don't provide a stable platform to pedal on. There are solutions. The Praxis is probably the best.

Avatar
Batchy replied to Sub4 | 7 years ago
0 likes

Sub4 wrote:

Batchy wrote:

My new bike has an internal bb30 bottom bracket. It started creaking after just 150 miles. I have never had  problems with external bearings on any of my previous bikes and I see that Team Sky 's Pinnarello 's are also equipped with these "old" style b bks. Obviously the tech guys at Sky / Pinnarello know something more that many of the opposing teams.

Or is it just because external bearings are not a complete pain in the arse to replace or service! 

yes, the bearings are so close together, it's no surprise that they don't provide a stable platform to pedal on. There are solutions. The Praxis is probably the best.

But my bb shell is 86.5mm wide therefore this puts the bearings pretty much in the same place on the spindle as external ones (68mm standard shell width)? 

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