Ineos Grenadiers have been spotted getting to grips with what looks to be a new Pinarello Dogma race bike while attending an altitude training camp ahead of the Criterium du Dauphine.
The new bike - photographed by Ajona Díaz Spínola - looks to feature a revised, deeper head tube design, a more slender down tube, and redesigned bottom bracket area.
If this is a new bike, it will likely succeed Pinarello's current Dogma F race bike, which hasn't received an update since it was launched back in June 2021.
At the time of writing, details on the potential new bike are scant, and therefore even putting a name to the frame is total guesswork - but we can deduce a few engineering changes from these images.
It seems to be the front of the bike that has seen the majority of Pinarello's care and attention.
Look closely, and you'll see a more angular, and deeper head tube shape which - likely in order to improve stiffness and aerodynamics. We have seen this across the board with bikes such as the Scott Foil RC, after the UCI relaxed its ruling on frame profile having a ratio of 3:1 depth to width ratios.
The head tube is a key part of the bike and can cause a particular headache for design engineers. This is due to carbon fiber generally being weaker around tight radius corners - inevitable at the head tube junction.
Specialized tackled this with the 'speed sniffer' by adding material around the front of the head tube, while Pinarello looks to have taken a slightly more aesthetically pleasing approach, adding material behind the stem. This, of course, aids aerodynamics efficiency too, elongating aerofoil shape to smooth airflow.
A side-by-side comparison reveals precious little difference between the two models - this potential update looks to be more iteration than revelation. That said, the bottom bracket on the new bike (pictured on the right below) has increased in size, likely in the name of increased lateral stiffness.
Pinarello also looks to have slimmed down some of the tube profiles on the bike, presumably in the name of weight saving. The down tube foregoes the pronounced cutaway for a water bottle seen on the current Dogma F, instead remaining a more uniform shape from top to bottom.
Arguably the same weight loss treatment has been applied to the rear seat stays too, once again following the 2024 performance formula of aero up front, weight saving at the rear.
It's no secret that bike brands often tend to align product launches with the sport's biggest circus, the Tour de France, and it's fairly common to start seeing glimpses of new race machines at the Criterium du Dauphine.
Pre-Dauphine training camps often provide the first opportunity for riders to start to use their new equipment, doing so outside of a stressed racing environment.
If Pinarello follows the traditional race bike release program, we expect to see the new bike ridden in anger this Sunday, with a possible release in the run-up before the Tour de France.
