A retrospective look at the Italian brand's iconic bicycles and their riders
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On September 2, 1994 Miguel Indurain used this Pinarello track bike to set a new hour record of 53.040km, breaking the record of 52.713km set by Graeme Obree earlier that year (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Abraham Olano (Spain) wins the 1998 elite men's time trial world championship in Valkenburg, the Netherlands on a Pinarello time trial bike (Image credit: AFP)
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Julián Gorospe (Reynolds), right, at the 1986 Tour de France where he would win stage 19. He would later direct the Euskaltel-Euskadi team from 1998 through 2006. (Image credit: AFP)
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The first Tour de France won on a Pinarello came courtesy of Pedro Delgado (Reynolds) in 1988 (Image credit: AFP)
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Jose Maria Jimenez (Banesto) solos to victory at the 2000 edition of Classique des Alpes (Image credit: AFP)
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Miguel Indurain (Banesto) finished second to Tony Rominger on the stage 19 ITT at the 1993 Tour but retained the yellow jersey (Image credit: AFP)
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Giovanni Pinarello, who would become the founder of the Pinarello bicycle company, piloted this Bottecchia to a last place finish in the 1951 Giro d'Italia. (Image credit: Pinarello)
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The first international victory on a Pinarello came courtesy of Guido de Rosso who won the 1961 Tour de l'Avenir (Image credit: Pinarello)
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The first overall Giro d'Italia victory for Pinarello came courtesy of Fausto Bertoglio in 1975 (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Giovanni Battaglin won both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana in 1981 aboard a Pinarello (Image credit: Pinarello)
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The height of aero technology in the late '80s. Franco Chioccioli and his Del Tongo squad rode Pinarello TT bikes to victory in the team time trial stage at the 1988 Giro d'Italia (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Franco Chioccioli used a Pinarello to win the 1991 Giro d'Italia (Image credit: Pinarello)
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At the root of Miguel Indurain's five straight Tour de France victories was his time trialing ability. Pictured here is a Pinarello time trial bike used in 1993 by Indurain. (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Miguel Indurain's full-aero time trial rig from 1995, the year of his final Tour de France victory and the year he won the time trial world championship in Colombia (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Pinarello's manifistation of the "Superman" position which Andrea Collinelli used to win a gold medal in the individual pursuit at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Altanta (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Bjarne Riis used this Pinarello time trial bike during his overall victory at the 1996 Tour de France (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Jan Ullrich's Pinarello road bike used during his 1997 Tour de France victory (Image credit: Pinarello)
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The Pinarello Crono Alu used by Alex Zulle during time trials in 1999, the year he finished second overall to Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Jan Ullrich's futuristic Pinarello time trial bike used during the 2000 season where he finished second overall in the Tour de France and earned the silver medal in the time trial at the Olympic Games in Sydney (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Miguel Indurain (Banesto) in yellow at the 1992 Tour de France with teammates Marino Alonso (left) and Pedro Delgado (center) (Image credit: AFP)
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Vicente Garcia-Acosta (Banesto) getting aero during stage 13 of the 1999 Tour de France (Image credit: AFP)
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Alex Zülle (Banesto) would finish second to Lance Armstrong on the 56km stage 8 ITT at the 1999 Tour de France (Image credit: AFP)
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Team captain Alex Zulle (second right) in action with his Banesto teammates during the stage 4 team time trial at the 2000 Tour de France. Banesto would place 12th, more than 4 minutes down on stage winner ONCE. (Image credit: AFP)
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Santiago Blanco (iBanesto.com) solos to victory in stage 10 at the 2001 Vuelta a Espana (Image credit: AFP)
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Denis Menchov (iBanesto.com) en route to a 13th place finish in the stage 3 ITT at the 2002 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (Image credit: AFP)
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They don't make TT bikes like this anymore...Miguel Indurain (Banesto) rode into yellow at the 1995 Tour de France with a victory in the 54km stage 8 individual time trial (Image credit: AFP)
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Miguel Indurain (Banesto) powering the winning break in stage 7 at the 1995 Tour. Johan Bruyneel (ONCE) would outsprint Indurain for the stage win plus yellow jersey, but Indurain would wrest the jersey away for good the next day in the 54km ITT. (Image credit: AFP)
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Miguel Indurain (Banesto) front and center in yellow during stage 11 of the 1993 Tour. Tony Rominger, right, would win the stage, Indurain would win overall for the third straight year, and Alvaro Mejia, left, would have his best overall Tour finish with 4th place (Image credit: AFP)
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Miguel Indurain (Banesto) in yellow in the background during the 1991 Tour, his first of five straight Tour victories. In the foreground is Italian champion Gianno Bugno, Indurain's super domestique Pedro Delgado and mountains leader Claudio Chiappucci (Image credit: AFP)
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Pedro Delgado (Banesto) and Ronan Pensec (Z) battle during stage 10 of the 1990 Tour de France. Belgian champion Claude Criquielion, on the hot pink bike, leads Raul Alcala in the background (Image credit: AFP)
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2006 Tour de France leader Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears) rolls out of the start house for the penultimate stage ITT. Floyd Landis would take the yellow jersey from Pereiro and ride with it into Paris, but the Spaniard would ultimately be named the 2006 winner after Landis was stripped of the title (Image credit: AFP)
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Floyd Landis (Phonak) marks yellow jersey holder Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears) during stage 15 at the 2006 Tour de France (Image credit: AFP)
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Alejandro Valverde (Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne) outsprinted Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel) to win stage 10 of the 2005 Tour in Courchevel (Image credit: AFP)
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The stars of cycling had hour record fever in 1994. Here Miguel Indurain becomes the first man to ride over 53km in one hour (53.040km), beating Graeme Obree's record of 52.713km. Tony Rominger would go further than Indurain on two separate occasions later in 1994. (Image credit: AFP)
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Abraham Olano (Banesto) led the 1997 Dauphine Libere on the final stage, but crashed and finished second overall to Udo Bolts (Telekom) (Image credit: AFP)
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Abraham Olano (Banesto) leads Evgeni Berzin (La Francaise des Jeux) and French champion Laurent Jalabert (ONCE) during stage 10 of the 1998 Tour de France (Image credit: AFP)
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Unaï Osa (Banesto) en route to an 8th place finish on the Mont Ventoux time trial in the 1999 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, a stage won by Jonathan Vaughters (Image credit: AFP)
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The Pinarello Paris used in 2006 by Alejandro Valverde, the year he claimed the Ardennes double of La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège (Image credit: Pinarello)
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Frank Vandenbroucke goes on the attack at Paris-Nice while in 2004 while riding for Fassa Bortolo. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
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Alessandro Petacchi's Fassa Bortolo Pinarello Dogma. (Image credit: Tim Maloney/Cyclingnews)
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Bradley Wiggins gets low on the corners (Image credit: Rob Lampard)
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Movistar used Pinarello Dogma Ks - and the older KOBH 60.1 - for its run at Paris-Roubaix. (Image credit: James Huang)
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Most bike frames in 1997 were still made out of metal, which limited what designers could do in terms of aerodynamic shaping. Here, Jan Ullrich tears around the Saint-Etienne course on a bike with a disc rear wheel, medium-depth front wheel, and aero bars but with just a teardrop-shaped down tube instead of the full-blown aero creations of today. (Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
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Miguel Indurain's 1993 Pinarello Banesto Team Bike was the first TIG-welded steel bike to win the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. (Image credit: Tim Maloney/Cyclingnews)
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Miguel Indurain won his five Tours based largely on his ability to time trial efficiently. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
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Miguel Indurain's (Banesto) steel Pinarello as used in the 1993 Tour de France. (Image credit: Tim Maloney)
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Bjarne Riis (Telekom) leads Berzin during a short but heroic defence of the yellow jersey in 1996 (Image credit: AFP)
Rui Costa added the most recent chapter to the storied history of Italy's Pinarello bicycle company as the 26-year-old Portuguese rider rode a brilliant race to win the road race world championship last Sunday in Florence, Italy.
Costa's trade team of Movistar has parted ways with Pinarello for 2014 (and Costa himself moves to Lampre-Merida next season) and it marks the end of a lengthy relationship with the Spanish squad which can be traced back to the Reynolds team of the 1980s. Pinarello still figures prominently in the pro peloton, however, as they've extended their partnership with the British Sky team through 2016. Pinarello's relationship with Team Sky has been fruitful since their initial sponsorship in 2010 which has seen the squad win 136 races thus far, highlighted by back-to-back Tour de France victories courtesy of Bradley Wiggins (2012) and Chris Froome (2013).
Pinarello was founded by Giovanni Pinarello, himself a professional cyclist, but who saw the writing on the wall after finishing dead last in the 1951 Giro d'Italia. The next year his Giro d'Italia roster spot was bought out in favour of a more promising rider, Pasquale Fornara, and the 100,000 lire Pinarello received as compensation provided the seed money to found the eponymously named Pinarello bicycle company based in Treviso, Italy.
This gallery represents many milestones in the history of Pinarello, from the company's first international victory via Guido de Rossa at the 1961 Tour de l'Avenir, its first overall Giro d'Italia victory in 1975, its relationship with Italian champions Giovanni Battaglin and Franco Chioccioli, through the more modern era with Miguel Indurain and Alex Zulle at Banesto, Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich at Telekom and Spaniards such as Oscar Pereiro and Alejandro Valverde. The racing photos represent the years of Pinarello's sponsorship of Movistar's precursors in Reynolds, Banesto and Caisse d'Epargne.
Click here to view the Pinarello retrospective gallery.
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Based in the southeastern United States, Peter produces race coverage for all disciplines, edits news and writes features. The New Jersey native has 30 years of road racing and cyclo-cross experience, starting in the early 1980s as a Junior in the days of toe clips and leather hairnets. Over the years he's had the good fortune to race throughout the United States and has competed in national championships for both road and 'cross in the Junior and Masters categories. The passion for cycling started young, as before he switched to the road Peter's mission in life was catching big air on his BMX bike.
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