While in Chattanooga for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships we stumbled upon this distinctive black and gold Pinarello Bolide of Chilean M40-44 age grouper Hugo Eduardo Abarzua Vergara, and I took a closer look at this fairly rare bike on the triathlon circuit. I grabbed the pics before the race, but Vergara rode 2:30:14 and finished the race in 4:49:02 and 69th place in his age group. But what bike split he would do was not important in my decision to feature this bike, and I am not even known as a particular fan boy of this brand. But hey, this was the first time I saw one in the wild.
Vergara is a tall athlete and this Pinarello Bolide is thus also relatively tall. He neither spoke English or German, and I really can't speak Spanish and thus I could only discern details that I could see with my eyes. Money was clearly however not an object when building up this Bolide.
I have heard before that it is considered sinful to not have Campagnolo components on a Pinarello and it appears that Vergara is not a sinner. The bike features a Campagnolo Super Record 11 speed EPS grouppo, and Vergara set his extensions up reasonably narrow.
There are however quite a few spacers under the arm pads. I had no tape measure with me and could not ask him but I would venture to say his drop is about 12 cm.
The front brakes are well hidden behind this golden cover.
Vergara used Rotor 3D cranks with 53/39 Q-Rings and an SRM power meter in Chattanooga.
The rear brakes are also shielded from the wind by a golden cover.
The aero Elite Chrono CX water bottle was not yet on the bike when we saw it.
An Italian Fizik Arione Tri2 saddle with an American XLab Gorilla cage behind it and a spare tubular taped under it.
A German Lightweight Autobahn rear disc with German 25mm Continental Competition tires laced to both the rear and front wheel.
Wir fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn. A Lightweight Autobahn VR8 front wheel rounds out the package.
Another perspective of this Pinarello Bolide.
All images © Herbert Krabel / slowtwitch.com
