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Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot raced camouflaged prototypes in French Cup

More secret tech breaks cover ahead of Nove Mesto World Cup

Photo by: Ineos / Noam Meresse
May 2, 2023
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As World Cup season draws closer more top pros are breaking cover on new bikes. Specialized and Trek were first out of the gates, teasing updates to their respective XC race bikes. Now, it looks like Pinarello is joining the party. Both Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot were racing on camouflaged and unbranded bikes at the French Cup in Gueret over the weekend.

Details are few and far between but photos from Gueret, shared by INEOS and the riders themselves, give some insight to what the new bikes could be.

Pinarello returning to cross country?

If the splashy camo scheme, clearly designed to attract attention as much as it was to obfuscate finer details of the frame’s design, is any indication, the French Cup could mark Pinarello’s return to mountain biking. Up until this point, the INEOS star mountain bikers raced on bikes from other brands.

Both riders previously raced on frames from BMC. Pidcock won his Olympic gold medal on an unmarked BMC. That was his choice of race bike since Pinarello – INEOS’ official bike sponsor – doesn’t currently make a mountain bike. Ferrand-Prévot previously raced for BMC, so it seemed logical that she would continue with the brand now that she’s joined INEOS. In a similar manner as Pidcock already did, just no longer as an official BMC rider.

Now, that looks up in the air.

Pinarello XC prototype

BMC has its own pro teams and racers, so it is unlikely that the two INEOS stars are racing on a new bike from the Swiss brand. BMC wouldn’t give exclusive access to any prototype it is developing to two non-team riders, no matter how high profile those two riders are.

 

Both riders could be moving to an unmarked frame from a different brand than BMC, continuing Pidcock’s unbranded agreement from before. But there are a few details that make it look both Pidcock and Ferrand-Prevot were on a Pinarello.

First, photos shared by the race organizer show Pidcock’s frame running Pinarello’s MOST stem design. Cables appear to be routed through the headset, as many brands are opting to do with their XC bikes.

 

As for the bike’s design, the camouflage – which borrows from the “razzle dazzle” camouflage pattern used by the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy in the first two world wars to conceal or confuse shape – is effective in obfuscating the details of frame shape. But there are some broad details that the photos do show.

The carbon fibre front triangle uses a mostly square tubing design. It uses the slight hump shape to the top tube, much like Pinarello’s Nytro eGravel bike, so the mystery mountain bike follows the Italian brand’s design cues.

Suspension is harder to pick out. But it does look like a flex-pivot suspension design, with no set pivot point near the rear axle. The main pivots are based just above the bottom bracket, with the shock attached to the top tube. The rear shock itself also looks different. It’s hard to tell from the low-resolution photos, but the extra bulk on the shock body might indicate some sort of electronic element. That could be a wireless remote lockout or just a data collection device.

How does the Pinarello perform?

While details remain to be revealed, the new bike is clearly fast. Or, more accurately, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is fast. The reigning world champion made her 2023 race debut with a solid win at the Gueret French Cup on Sunday.

Pidcock had less luck. After a podium behind Kiwi powerhouse Sam Gaze in Friday’s XCC, the Olympic gold medallist was forced to withdraw in the early laps of Sunday’s XCO due to mechanical difficulty. INEOS was in no rush to add specifics beyond admitting it was a “mechanical issue.”

Both riders are now off to Switzerland to continue their preparations for the first World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on May 14-16.