Ineos Grenadiers reveal Richard Carapaz's new 'golden' bike

Ineos Grenadiers have revealed the special edition Pinarello that new Olympic champion Richard Carapaz will ride with new 'gold' livery.

The first thing we'd like to point out is, let's face it, it isn't gold. It's bronze or even a rusty orange, it's unlikely they wanted the rusty iron look. It still looks great though.

Ecuadorian Carapaz won the Olympic Games road race solo after a superb ride where he attacked clear with American rider Brandon McNulty (USA) with Wout van Aert (Belgium) taking silver and Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) getting bronze.

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The frame of the bike is a beauty with the fade of bronze to black; the metallic shine will be very eye-catching in the late Spanish summer sun contrasted with the stealthy and smart matte black. But away from the frame, the first thing that pops out is the fact Ineos Grenadiers are still committing to the rim brake on their Shimano C60 wheels. 

The bike is fully Shimano with the latest Dura-Ace R9150 groupset as well as Shimano pedals. The crank length is 170mm fitted with 53x39 chainrings.

The frame size is a 50cm for the 1.7m tall Carapaz, who goes to Spain as one of the three stand-out leaders for the Ineos Grenadiers team at the Vuelta a España after Olympic success and his third overall at the Tour de France.

The saddle that the Ecuadorian will be using is a Fizik Antare 00. Also, Elite Leggero bottle cages are fitted to the Pinarello F's frame. 

It is not yet known what changes to Carapaz's kit there will be as both of the last Olympic road race champions Samuel Sánchez and Greg Van Avermaet (Ag2r-Citroën) really went for the gold look with the gold helmet and golden cuffs on their sleeves.

There is a possibility it could look very classy on the midnight blue kit with custom designs from fans showing the red Grenadiers logo as gold, but it is unlikely to go that far.

The Vuelta a España begins on Saturday, August 14 in Burgos with the Ineos Grenadiers bringing a world-class team. Alongside Carapaz there is Adam Yates, 2021 Giro d'Italia winner Egan Bernal, Pavel Sivakov, fellow Olympic gold medalist Tom Pidcock, Ecuadorian training partner Jhonatan Narváez, Salvatore Puccio and Dylan van Baarle.