Tom Pidcock became only the second rider in the history of the Olympic games to win back-to-back XCO mountain bike titles. Pidcock matched Julien Absalon's unique double that the French rider had achieved back in 2004 and 2008. Pidcock had to work hard to defend his title, overcoming an early puncture and fighting back to take the gold medal in a nail-biting thriller at the Elancourt Hill XCO track.
I had an exclusive chat with Cal Wyllie – Pidcock's Team GB MTB Race Mechanic in Paris. Wyllie talked me over some of the details of the Pinarello Dogma XC. That also included giving me insight into the work and behind-the-scenes tweaks and performance-enhancing adjustments that helped make Pidcock the very best he could be on race day.
Pinarello Dogma XC
The Pinarello Dogma XC is constructed using Toray M40J carbon fiber and is claimed to weigh 1,749g without the shock in a Small. That's the weight of the production model though, Wyllie remained tight-lipped over the exact weight of the actual gold medal-winning bike. For the Olympic games, Pidcock's bike featured a special custom paint job, with the sides of the head tube featuring a Team GB Union Jack design.
Wyllie told me that Pidcock always has the full-suspension and hardtail versions of the Dogma and will decide which is best on the build-up to race day. For the earlier Paris Test Event, Pidcock had gone with the lighter and stiffer hardtail and after that race and pre-race practice laps of the Elancourt Hill course, decided that the full-sus Dogma suited him better. Wyllie added this decision was due to the anticipated rapid pace of the men's event and although the course wasn't massively technical, some of the big features made the full-suspension a no-brainer.
The suspension on Pidcock's Dogma XC is SR Suntour’s Tact electronic system, which controls the low-speed compression on the 100mm Axon 34 Werx Boost EQ fork. The Suntour Tact system uses one sensor on the crown of the fork to detect gradient, weightlessness, and vibrations then alters the suspension to suit. The rear shock, also from Suntour, is the brand's Edge TT model and Tom went with just a meager 90mm of rear travel.
The Dogma XC rolls on Princeton CarbonWorks Singularis M30 wheels which use weight-saving spokes that are made out of string, yes string. Wyllie told me these spokes (made by US brand Bern) feature a specific weave that makes them extremely strong and super lightweight. Quoted on the Bern website as "12 times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel and they float on water", with the only metal being the spoke nipples.
The added benefit for Pidcock, Wyllie said is that the Bern PolyLight spokes deliver more traction to the wheel through the spokes flex which means less rider effort. Interestingly, the Bern PolyLight spokes can be dyed, but after the Bern team dropped in on the Team GB pit they went with white, as it matched the logo on the Singularis M30 wheels. The M30s have a 30mm internal width and are claimed to weigh just 419g per wheel. The wheelset starts at a whopping $1,800 and tops out at $2,800.
Pidcock used Shimano's XTR groupset for the drivetrain, braking and pedals. Marginal gains are crucial to the Dogma's setup with every piece of excess rubber like cable guides and brake lever hoses all being removed pre-race by the Team GB mechanics.
Vertical's Helium dropper post is claimed to be, and Wyllie confirmed, one of the lightest around. Pidcock went with 90mm of travel and it's paired with a Prologo Scratch NDR, specifically designed for cross-country and marathon MTB racing.
Pidcock's tire of choice is the Continental Race King in a 29 x 2.4" size. But that's not the end of the story as these tires are a special unreleased rubber compound. Wyllie and his colleagues had to spend hours trimming the 100s of little rubber castings you get on brand-new tires from numerous sets, purely because Tom doesn't like the noise they make. Now that is marginal gains.
Pinarello's in-house component specialists, Most, developed an integrated one-piece carbon cockpit. It features an in-built mount on the stem for Pidcock's Garmin computer and is finished with ESI foam grips. The grips are personalized for Pidcock with the pack of cards logo that's found on his signature series sunglasses and the top tube of the Dogma too. The cards are purely good luck things for Tom – which seems to work.
Finally, one of the most interesting pieces of information was the use of hairspray. Tom wanted his Gold medal-winning bike to remain in the exact condition that it was in after crossing the line, which meant retaining its coating of Elancourt Hill dust. The way to do that, Wyllie informed me, is by spraying the bike with hairspray. More widely known is that it's also a guaranteed way to stop foam MTB grips from moving too. Though a Team GB mechanic's top tip is to coat the bars in hairspray and leave overnight – which then makes for a super grippy bond.
