After Pidcock racked up two first-race wins at the Nové Město World Cup on Pinarello’s full-suspension mountain bike debut, the Italian bike maker is back for the World Championships in Scotland with an all-new Dogma XC HT cross-country hardtail. Being raced now in the XCC short track Worlds by both Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Tom Pidcock, the new Pinarello Dogma XC Hardtail has even more divisive looks that you’ll find on the fully or a curvy Pinarello road bike, with a big cutout above the bottom bracket and wildly asymmetric seat & chainstays…
Pinarello Dogma XC HT Hardtail cross-country mountain bike
Pinarello describes this latest full carbon iteration of their hardtail project as delivering “maximum lightness, stiffness, and reactivity from the rear triangle which will suit the very fastest race circuits“.
Better suited for less technically demanding races than the 90-100mm of rear wheel travel in the full-suspension Dogma XC, this new Dogma XC Hardtail is all about efficiency for the two INEOS Grenadiers riders. Both immensely technically capable racers with the off-road trophies, medals & rainbow jerseys to prove it, Ferrand-Prévot & Pidcock were apparently instrumental in the development of this wild-looking new carbon cross-country hardtail. In fact, Fausto Pinarello says Ferrand-Prévot pushed them to develop a light & stiff XC hardtail from the moment she signed on with the INEOS team.
The new DOGMA XC hard tail frame is stiff, fast, light and responsive, and it feels great to ride. I’ve been flying on this bike, especially on the climbs. I requested a hard tail version as I work towards the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and I’m grateful to Pinarello for developing this frame and delivering it so quickly.
– Pauline Ferrand-Prévot
As for racing in Scotland this week… after already spotting Pidcock smashing the rocks of Glentress on the Dogma XC full-suspension bike – as shot by our friend and excellent photographer Michal Červený – I do wonder if the new hardtail will just be limited to the less gnarly XCC track. But it seems in the path to racing the Paris Olympics next summer, the INEOS Grenadiers need to lay some groundwork on the hardtail.
In any case, it seems to have worked for XCC, as Ferrand-Prévot just took the Short Track World Championship title on the new bike!
What do we know about the hardtail?
With no advance warning, Pinarello only now sent over a basic press release and just a few studio photos of the new Dogma XC Hardtail – which they seem to alternatively be calling the Pinarello Dogma XC HT to differentiate it from the full-suspension Dogma XC FS. But there’s plenty of info to dive into, and thankfully some more exciting photos on their social media this afternoon.
Most obvious is the wild rear-end asymmetry. The fully was already asymmetric to a lesser degree, but this hardtail goes over the top. Pinarello says they patented the rear triangle design, which reinforces the left-hand non-driveside with a more direct triangulated layout to offer increased stiffness to “counterbalance the higher forces being applied” on the drivetrain-side by rider pedaling input, presumably benefitting the direct connection of the new SRAM thru-axle and T-Type transmission.
Does that mean the dropped driveside chainstay and upper seatstay connection offer increased rider comfort or some flex to maintain rear wheel traction over rough terrain? We can’t really say. But surely there’s had to be a lot of complex carbon layup design in this unique rear triangle layout to make sure the bike tracks true & straight through technical sections when Pidcock & Ferrand-Prévot aren’t putting down the power in explosive sprints.
Tech details
Like the full-suspension bike, the Pinarello Dogma XC Hardtail also gets a triangulated strut connecting the lower seat and down tubes just above the BB for increased bottom bracket stiffness. No power lost in out-of-the-saddle pedaling sprints here for sure.
Up front, Pinarello gives the new Dogma XC Hardtail the same fully-integrated 1-piece carbon Most cockpit, with all cables routed internally through the TiCR 1.5″ headset like we see on most modern road bikes. There’s also a 60° internal lock-block in the headset to prevent shearing off cables in an off-road crash. And it is designed around a 100mm travel suspension fork.
More into the tech details of the Toray carbon frame, we see full internal cable routing – also for a mechanically-actuated 30.9mm dropper post like on Ferrand-Prévot’s bike. Her bike also has a hole in the side of the headtube to route the wiring for the TACT automatically controlled SR Suntour suspension, although her bike setup gets a mechanically actuated fork lockout.
There’s also an interesting layout of bolts inside the main triangle for 2 water bottles and accessories – a 3-pack at the bottom, a regular pair of 2 bottle cage bolts in the middle, then a more tightly-spaced set of 2 bolts up top likely for a TACT battery.
The frame is also 1x-specific with a max 40T chainring, a 52.5mm chainline, a direct-mount for a mini chainguide, Flat Mount 160 brakes (compatible with up to a 180mm rotor), Boost rear spacing, and a UDH direct mount on the end of the 12mm thru-axle for SRAM T-type transmission. Beyond that, we also know the 29er hardtail has clearance for up to 2.3″ tires.
Pinarello Dogma XC Hardtail – Availability?
As for actual consumer availability of the new Pinarello Dogma XC HT Hardtail… we’ll just have to wait and see. We suspect that from a combination of UCI & Olympics regulations, Pinarello felt the need to get the bike racing by this year’s World Championships to qualify for next summer’s Paris Olympics (like we’ve seen a lot on the track this year). Likely that also means that the new Pinarello mountain bikes will need to be commercially available before next summer as well.
But we still don’t have any more concrete pricing data or availability date on the full-suspension Dogma XC FS besides “2024”. And Pinarello still doesn’t have any Dogma XC mountain bikes listed on their website (besides an eMTB teaser). So we just have to wait and see.
