The Ineos Grenadiers team has been spotted on what appears to be a new Pinarello Dogma ahead of the Tour de France.
Lining up at the start of a key warm-up race, the Critérium du Dauphiné, the riders will be getting acquainted with the new design before July’s big race.
However, given that changes appear to be fairly minor, familiarity with the new bike probably won’t require many hours in the saddle.
Deeper head tube
The new design seems limited in its scope, with the main visual change coming at the head tube, which is deeper.
The down tube appears to be marginally thinner and the bottom bracket area has been revised.
At the time of writing, specific details are scarce and Pinarello has a history of incremental updates, suggesting some of the existing Dogma F's frame features may have been retained.
For example, the wavy fork – a familiar Pinarello design – is still present, as are the 'Fork Flap' tabs at its base.
Marginal aero gains
We’ve seen a number of bike brands launching seemingly small updates to their top-tier race machines and the focus is almost always directed to the bike’s frontal profile.
Fans of Specialized, for example, may have felt a little underwhelmed at the first sight of the S-Works Tarmac SL8, ahead of last year's World Championships in Glasgow.
The SL8's redesign focused mainly on a new head tube – the now-infamous 'Speed Sniffer' – and there's good reason for brands to be narrowing their focus onto this area of the bike.
The UCI’s relaxation of its 3:1 depth-to-width ratio rule has resulted in deeper and thinner tubes on some of the latest bikes, such as Scott’s Foil RC.
Is it lighter?
So it seems that Pinarello is chasing small drag reductions from the front end, but other changes may be designed with weight saving in mind.
The down tube, for example, appears to be slightly narrower in places, potentially reducing the amount of material required and possibly lowering the weight.
What is clear is that there's still a recessed area for the bottle and cage. This is an effort to shield the front bottle from drag-inducing air – a feature introduced on 2019’s Dogma F12.
While the down tube may have been made lighter, Pinarello appears to have added extra material to the bottom bracket.
The area directly above the bottom bracket cups has become more angular, flowing directly from the chainstays to the down tube.
A change like this is usually accompanied by claims of increased lateral stiffness, so it will be interesting to hear what Pinarello has to say when the bike is launched.
For now, we would expect the traditional bike launch schedule to be followed, with official news of the new model likely to come in the days before the Tour de France.
