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

The Olympic champion will be riding his new bike at the Vuelta a España

Richard Carapaz given his new Olympic gold bike
(Image credit: Ineos Grenadiers/ Alex Duffill)

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.

>>> Five things to look out for at the Vuelta a España 2021 week one

Richard Carapaz's new Olympic champion bike

(Image credit: Ineos Grenadiers/ Alex Duffill)

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. 

Richard Carapaz with his new Olympic edition Pinarello

(Image credit: Ineos Grenadiers/ Alex Duffill)

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.

Richard Carapaz's Olympic Pinarello

(Image credit: Ineos Grenadiers/ Alex Duffill)

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.

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Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.