The car company better known for winning races at Le Mans has joined forces with Italian bicycle builder Pinarello to see if the lessons it’s learned and the technology it has developed in the pursuit of automotive performance will give Team Sky’s cycling team a competitive edge as it heads to the sport’s most famous competition.
No, Jaguar hasn’t built a bike with a supercharged V8 engine, but what it has done is given Pinarello access to its aerodynamics expertise and facilities in order to help it build the new Pinarello Dogma F8 bicycle.
Unveiled at a special event this week, the new bike for the British cycling team is 26.1 per cent more aerodynamic than the outgoing Dogma 65.1 without a rider and 6.4 per cent more aerodynamic including a rider.
It will make its first public appearance at the Critérium du Dauphiné on June 8 before heading off to this year’s Tour de France, where Team Sky will be hoping to make it three wins in three years.
And, as this year’s event gets underway on July 15 in the British city of Leeds, we won’t have to wait long to find out if the bike lives up to the hype.
