Pinarello

Pinarello is a bike manufacturer based in Treviso, Italy. It produces a range of high-end bikes for road, track, mountain and electric disciplines. The company takes pride in being the most decorated bike manufacturer in Tour de France history.

History

Cicli Pinarello was founded in 1952 by Giovanni Pinarello. The eighth of 12 children, ‘Nani’ had a successful amateur career and turned pro in 1947, however, his most notable achievement on a bike wouldn’t actually be a victory. Pinarello claimed the Maglia Nera at the 1951 Giro d’Italia - the jersey awarded to the last rider in the standings. A year later though, his Bottecchia team dropped him unexpectedly, giving him 100,000 lire as compensation. He used the funds to open his own bike shop in Treviso, fixing and building bikes thanks to skills learnt whilst working at the Paglianti motorbike factory during his teens.

Pinarello grew steadily during its early years, producing bikes for local teams in Treviso and taking its first international victory at the 1961 Tour de l’Avenir. Pinarello sponsored amateur teams during the 1960s before truly igniting its reputation in 1975 with a first Grand Tour win thanks to Fausto Bertoglio at the Giro d’Italia.

Another Giro victory and a Tour de France win arrived during the 1980s but it was Pinarello’s collaboration with José Miguel Echavarri, team manager of Reynolds pro team, that really set the company’s steam train of success into motion. Reynolds soon became Banesto, and Pinarello helped Miguel Indurain to achieve a record-equalling five Tour de Frances, two Giro d’Italia crowns, an Hour Record, a World Time Trial Championship title and an Olympic TT Gold between 1991 and 1996.

During this time, Nani handed over the reins of the business to his son Fausto whilst Lamborghini Formula One Team engineer Marco Giachi also came on board, spearheading Pinarello’s cutting-edge design strategy.

The Espada which helped ‘Big Mig’ secure the Hour Record in 1994 was duly followed by more and more innovative models over the coming years, such as the Paris and ultimately the Dogma at the end of the 2000s.

By now, Pinarello’s public popularity had skyrocketed too, and the partnership with newly-founded Team Sky would take it to another level. Pinarello’s marginal gains philosophy matched that of Sir Dave Brailsford, and together with Sky and now the Ineos Grenadiers, it has won 12 Grand Tour titles to date.

Giovanni passed away in 2014, aged 92. Two years later, Fausto and other family members sold Pinarello to equity firm L Catterton for a reported €90 million. In recent years, the company has added e-bikes, gravel bikes, cyclo-cross bikes, and even mountain bikes into its product range.

Key Moments

1994 - Formula 1 helps Pinarello to create the Espada

With input from Lamborghini Formula One Team engineer Marco Giachi, Pinarello developed the carbon monocoque Espada in 1994, ready for Miguel Indurain’s Hour Record attempt. It was the company’s first carbon frame and helped ‘Big Mig’ to break 53kph for the first time.

2014 - The passing of a cycling pioneer

At the age of 92, Giovanni ‘Nani’ Pinarello passed away in Treviso. Nani had been a professional for six years, achieving fame for taking the maglia nera at the 1951 Giro d’Italia. In the years before his death, his son Fausto had taken over the reins of the business.

2016 - Pinarello leaves family ownership

Two years after the death of its founder Giovanni, a majority stake of the company was bought by Treviso-based private equity firm L Catterton. Fausto still remained as chairman of Pinarello. In 2023, L Catterton sold its share to a private family office.

Pinarello's bikes

© Pinarello

The Pinarello Dogma F

Road: Pinarello’s road bike range focuses mainly on performance, with its Dogma F racing bike designed to be capable of climbing, descending and sprinting. Meanwhile, the Bolide F TT bike is Pinarello’s fastest ever, with versions subsequently introduced for triathlons and hour records. Also available is the endurance-orientated Pinarello X.

E-Bikes: Pinarello’s  Nytro electric bike range is made up of the Nytro E Road, Nytro E Gravel and the Nytro E Allroad bikes.

Gravel and off-road: The Italian company centres its gravel range around two main aims, bikes for competition and for endurance. The Grevil F is designed specifically for gravel racing whilst the Granger range of bikes aim to provide comfort regardless of distance. Meanwhile, its recently launched a Dogma XC mountain bike and a Crossista F cyclocross bike.

Track: Pinarello’s current track bike is the Maat Italia, designed and built following close collaboration with the Italian national team.

Did you know?

Pro cycling

© Pinarello

Miguel Indurain riding a Pinarello Espada to the Hour Record in 1994

Current sponsorships: INEOS Grenadiers

Previous sponsorships: Team Telekom, Banesto, Caisse d’Epargne, Del Tongo, Fasso Bortolo, Team Sky, Movistar, British Cycling.

Notable wins

• 16x Tour de France (Pedro Delgado 1988, Miguel Indurain 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, Bjarne Riis 1996, Jan Ullrich 1997, Óscar Pereiro 2006, Bradley Wiggins 2012, Chris Froome 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, Geraint Thomas 2018, Egan Bernal 2019)
• 6x Giro d’Italia (Franco Chioccioli 1991, Miguel Indurain 1992, 1993, Chris Froome 2018, Tao Geoghegan Hart 2020, Egan Bernal 2021)
• 3x Vuelta a España (Jan Ullrich 1999, Chris Froome 2011, 2017)
• 8x World Championships time trial (Miguel Indurain 1995, Abraham Olano 1998, Jan Ullrich 1999, 2001, Bradley Wiggins 2014, Vasil Kiriyenka 2015, Filippo Ganna 2020, 2021),
• 6x Milan Sanremo (Erik Zabel 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, Alessandro Petacchi 2005, Michał Kwiatkowski 2017)
• 3x Giro di Lombardia (Raimondas Rumšas 2000, Michele Bartoli 2002, 2003),
• Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Wout Poels 2016)
• Paris-Roubaix (Dylan van Baarle 2022)
• UCI Hour Record (Filippo Ganna 2022, Bradley Wiggins 2015, Miguel Indurain 1994)
• UCI Cyclo-cross World Championship (Tom Pidcock 2022)