CLOSE UP: 3D PINARELLA CAR BY PHILIP HANNA

After a disastrous Tour de France and TT World Championship where he failed to win either event despite being pre-race favourite, Italian Ineos rider Filippo Ganna returned to the headlines when he broke the existing hour record in Switzerland . Here’s some inside info on the 3-D Pinarello Bolide he rode to make the record.

Following her world record, Anna is off to France this weekend for the World Athletics Championships outside Paris.

PINARELLA’S 3-D BALLID

Press release

On Saturday, 26-year-old Filippo Ganna, an Italian cyclist who rides for the Ineos Grenadiers team, recorded the longest distance ever ridden in one hour at the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland. Anna has ridden 56.792 kilometers (35.288 miles) on a fully 3D-printed Pinarello Bolide F HR 3D track bike made of aerospace scandium alloy, designed using biomimicry of a humpback whale.

“To reach this amazing goal today is fantastic for me and for all the employees who have worked for a long time to achieve this result,” said Anna. “I am proud of the support and innovation we were able to give Filippo in building the bike for this incredible new record,” said Fausto Pinarello, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pinarello. “This is the fourth time in history that the hour record has been set on a Pinarello bike, an achievement that no other brand can claim.”

Riding in a low aero position despite his 6ft 4in height, Hanna went much further than previous hour record holder Dan Bigham, who set the official UCI hour record, clocked by Tissot at 55.548 kilometers in August at the Grenchen Velodrome. Bigham is a performance engineer for Ineos Grenadiers and he advised Anna on the best way to beat his record.

The first accepted hourly record was set in 1876, when the American Frank Dodds traveled 26.508 kilometers on a penny farthing. Since then, dozens of cyclists, from unknown amateurs to famous professionals, have held the record, adding prestige, romance and appeal to it.

The Pinarello Bolide F HR 3D bicycle frame that Anna rode to break the record featured Pinarello’s new AirStream technology, developed based on the University of Adelaide’s humpback whale locomotion research. Humpback whales are well known for their ability to perform very tight turns as well as spectacular leaps from the water. The researchers found that the tufts (protrusions at the front of their flippers) contribute significantly to this ability. For the Bolide F HR 3D, Pinarello engineers developed and thoroughly tested a ridge of bumps on the frame called AeroNodes, which significantly reduced drag and minimized the turbulence created by Anna’s up and down legs.

The 3D printing of the Ganna bike frame allowed for a completely perfect fit, designed around the rider, conforming to his unique anatomy to maximize his comfort and overall aero performance. The Pinarello Bolide F HR 3D tubes were 3D printed from a high-strength scandium-aluminum-magnesium alloy called Scalmalloy, which was developed in the aerospace industry. Created on a large-format printer, the bicycle frame was printed as five separate parts, which were then joined together using aerospace-grade epoxy resin.

“This is such a unique project; we believe this is the beginning of a new era of manufacturing. The next step is to make it more accessible by finding ways to scan riders with more affordable equipment and automatically design each unique bike. From the World Champion to every World Tour rider and ultimately to every cyclist,” said Federico Sbrissa, Chief Marketing Officer of Pinarello.

The Bolide F HR 3D is available to order from an official Pinarello retailer starting today, and due to the 3D printing manufacturing technology, it will only be produced on demand.

More details: Pinarello