Pinarello Team Banesto TT Jose Maria Jimenez 1996

Our Pinarello Banesto TT belonged to Jose Maria Jimenez. Jimenez was nicknamed El Chava and turned professional at the beginning of the 1993 season with Team Banesto. He would stay as a member of Team Banesto until the end of his career, forming partnerships with the likes of Miguel Indurain.

The bikes for the Banesto Team were traditionally made by Pinarello - with a short break where the Spanish brand Razesa delivered the frames. Within the brand of Pinarello from a certain point on it was one specific man who took care of those frames: Dario Pegoretti.

The legendary framebuilder from Caldonazzo (Trento) and later Verona, is widely considered to be one of the best framebuilders of his era. And thus, he was responsible for bikes of some of the most famous riders of their time. Marco Pantani, Stephen Roche, Claudio Chiappucci, Mario Cipollini, Andrea Tafi, Tom Boonen and others. He famously welded Indurains 1994 Tour de France frame which would become the last year that the tour winner had been riding only steel bikes.

Dario was one of the Pioneers of TIG-welded frames, Steel and Aluminium were his materials of choice. And being very creative, he was frequently checking out special steel tubes. The effects of his work can be seen on our Time Trial bike here. He ordered the tubes from French tubing specialists Excell.

This so called Podio tubeset is inspired by the aerodynamically shaped steel designs which were traditionally utilized in airplane constructions. Ironically though the tubes were turned 180 degrees and by doing so created a unique look with the headtube protruding forward like the blade of a knife. Being not only aerodynamic but also comparably stronger.