Jersey Bikes: Pinarello Dogma F10 X-Light

In our September 2017 issue, we featured the bikes ridden by the 2017 Tour de France jersey winners. We figured we’d start the online series with Yellow.

Social media saw an onslaught of “boring Tour” posts in July. What bike race were they watching? Clearly not the one that saw one of the closest GC battles in race history, with breathtaking moment after breathtaking moment. Some are watching the race through Sky-colored lenses, unable to see the race objectively. Part of it may be Chris Froome’s ungainly look on the bike. No matter the panache of his tactics or the brilliance of his execution, he does not cut a dashing figure in the saddle. We’ve heard his style described uncharitably as a “broom pushing a shopping trolley.” If only we could ride like that broom…. If only we had that shopping trolley….

PELOTON

Like most of Team Sky, Froome was not just on the latest F10 Pinarello, he was on the XLight, with a special layup to shave even more weight. He wrapped up the Tour on a flashy, yellow F10 but that was just for the final stage. Like the other jersey winners this year, there wasn’t much customization of bikes with green, yellow, white or polka dots. Froome’s everyday racer was black with just yellow PRO tape, a yellow K-Edge Garmin mount and, of course, his “Froomey Rhino” logo for customization. It’s a bit surprising that he’s still on a Garmin, considering two of the team’s sponsors (Stages and Wahoo) make very good head units.

Where the F8 was an entirely different beast than previous Dogmas, the F10 is an evolution. It took the new aero shapes, light weight and kinetic acceleration of the Dogma F8 and married it to the smooth, confident road manners of the Dogma 65.1. Froome’s fit is quite traditional. He’s on a 56cm F10 and he uses a 120mm stem with a centimeter of spacer on the 165mm head tube. At just over 6 feet tall, Froome is blessed with long femurs, which result in lots of leverage on his 175mm cranks and a saddle height of 79.5cm. His elbows-out riding style may be accentuated by the 40cm bars he rides—traditionally, a rider his size would be on 44cm bars, but in today’s pro peloton every watt is scrutinized and narrower bars make for a smaller hole to punch in the air.

Froome’s bike was built with a curious mix of Shimano Dura-Ace 9150 along with a Dura-Ace 9070 front derailleur. Could it be that his use of Osymetric 52-38 chainrings don’t play well with the new 9150 derailleur? Like Barguil and Yates, Froome likes to use climbing shifters on his tops. His cockpit is from PRO and, with its traditional fit, he can run the integrated Stealth bar and stem. Froome used both C60 and C40 Dura-Ace tubulars throughout the Tour depending on the day’s parcours.

From issue 69. Order it here: pelotonshop.com