<img src="https://bikerumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026-XCO-World-Champion-Tom-Pidcock-Pinarello-Dogma-XC-mountain-bike_pre-race-photo-by-Ross-Bell-for-Q365-1536×1024.jpg" width="1536" top="1024" alt="( Picture by Ross Bell/Pinarello-Q365)
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Tom Pidcock profitable a giant cross-country mountain bike title on the Pinarello Dogma XC full-suspension bike – developed only for him – isn’t actually information. It’s been taking place fairly persistently for the previous few years, because the bike’s debut. However as at all times, this time his World Championship-winning bike setup is a bit distinctive, together with some super-secret prototype wheels with fiber spokes, and some different attention-grabbing tidbits. However actually, it was most likely Vittoria’s headline that offered me on diggin’ deeper: “Pidcock wins Worlds on Peyote“.
Completely true, by the best way. Let’s clarify all of it…
2026 XC World Champion Tom Pidcock on Pinarello Dogma XC
First, sure. Tom Pidcock did simply win his second Elite Males’s UCI XCO Mountain Bike World Championship title. And that’s a photograph of him racing a street bike in Paris. As a result of, what’s possibly most spectacular about him profitable his second set of MTB rainbow stripes on his Pinarello Dogma XC, is that we haven’t seen him racing cross-country a lot this season. Actually, simply weeks in the past he was a street professional. It was lower than 5 weeks earlier than profitable XC Worlds that Pidcock was ending the Tour de France in ninth place on a special Pinarello Dogma. You recognize, the street one.
Additionally, a more in-depth take a look at his XC bike reveals that his setup has shifted quite a bit this season. Out with the automated suspension he raced since his 2021 Olympic Gold win in Tokyo, in with an all-new setup from Q36.5 sponsor SRAM.
Now racing RockShox Flight Attendant, not SR Suntour TACT
Since someday final season, now that he’s on the Pinarello-Q36.5 workforce, sponsored by SRAM, Pidcock has been racing on RockShox Final Flight Attendant suspension. What makes this distinctive is that Pidcock was an early adopter of automated suspension management, having helped SR Suntour develop their very own TACT auto system. A system with none backup controls on the bike, fully requiring the racer to belief that it’s making the suitable choices to manage suspension damping.
Pidcock truly gained his Tokyo Gold on a TACT prototype, the yr earlier than Pinarello unveiled their first XC mountain bike for him to race. And raced completely on it ever since. We suspected that SR Suntour would have already introduced it to the patron market by now. We have been teased that 2023/2024 was going to be the season. Having Pidcock as the best promoter of how nicely it really works, with none enter required would have been good. But it surely by no means got here.
RockShox‘s Flight Attendant, however, has loads of flashing lights seen immediately on the highest of the suitable fork leg. Riders can manually change settings on the fly. And though Pidcock usually doesn’t race MTB with a biking laptop, Flight Attendant now additionally gives wonderful integration with Hammerhead head items.
Clearly, it really works nicely for Tom Pidcock’s wants.
Pidcock Racing on Peyote
Again to the double entendre of Pidcock racing on Vittoria tires named after a small psychedelic cactus… Sure, he’s been racing cross-country on Vittoria’s fast-rolling 29 x 2.4″ Peyote tires with light-weight Air-Liner Mild XC tire liners inside, entrance & rear.
Pidcock has been coaching on unlabeled rear Peyotes because the begin of the yr (like we see beneath), suggesting there could also be some new rubber or casing building adjustments being examined. However for race day at Worlds final weekend, he rocked up with customary Peyote scorching patches. Though, they have been nonetheless labeled as ‘Vitoria Labs’ tires, with the identical handwritten capital I marking them as one thing particular.
Prototype carbon wheels with fiber spokes from FSA?
Extra attention-grabbing than drug-named tires, are the unlabeled prototype wheels on which they have been mounted. Formally, Pidcock’s Pinarello-Q36.5 workforce races on Zipp wheels. However these aren’t Zipp wheels.
Tom Pidcock is an unrepentant wheel nerd and weight weenie. His fixation on ultralight wheels even led Princeton Carbon to create the P1 Race Tech wheels for him and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, each of whom gained Gold on them. These are additionally not P1 wheels.
A rumor within the pits at Worlds means that they’re, in truth, unreleased prototype FSA wheels. However after I requested FSA immediately, they wouldn’t verify it.
Any labels or logos have been coated up, so we are able to’t ensure. However the hub form does look much like present KFX wheels. But, what actually caught my consideration have been the spokes.
Tom Pidcock’s logo-covered prototype wheels are apparently constructed with 24 Berd PolyLight fiber spokes entrance and rear. The Berd spokes embrace a ~5-6cm lengthy part of standard steel spoke, bonded inside the top that lets them match customary rim drilling. And on the hub, they’ve a loop & rod that matches into standard hub drilling, too. Berd says their UHMWPE spokes shave anyplace from 30-50% of the burden of normal spokes, whereas growing power and damping.
Whereas we did see Pidcock racing Zipp-labeled wheels within the Nove Mesto XCO World Cup race, additionally with fiber spokes. I additionally noticed him racing XCC with these similar unlabeled rims, which can turn into a next-gen FSA prototype.
Cockpit by Most & Prologo
Pidcock’s race bike contains a mild & stiff 1-piece MOST XC MTB cockpit from Pinarello’s personal element model. To that he mounts some light-weight ESI foam grips and a few Pod Rocker controllers for the brief 100mm RockShox Reverb AXS dropper and SRAM XX SL AXS Eagle wi-fi Transmission. Plus, SRAM Motive Final brakes. It’s positively an uncluttered cockpit, and even the highest cap-mounted GPS mount got here off for the massive race.
Lastly, he sits atop Prologo’s grippy Scratch NDR XC saddle with Nack carbon rails, slammed again on the rails like a roadie.
The remainder of his Pinarello Dogma XC is very similar to the bike I examined 2 years in the past in Pidcock’s personal gold & rainbow livery. No, Euro champ or previous rainbow stripe paint jobs for Worlds, Pinarello gave him a tasteful white & mild blue fade with speckles and crimson logos to match his GB Biking Group nationwide equipment. It’s surprisingly brief journey for an XC bike lately – simply 90mm within the rear with Pidcock operating the shorter 45mm stroke shock. Though it does appear that he pairs it with a 110mm SID SL fork right here. However clearly, that was nonetheless a lot for Tom Pidcock.
Pinarello.com
