PRICE: 3950 EURO

The curvy 2007 Pinarello Prince FPX of Alejandro Valverde fame just oozes Italian carbon fibre sex appeal.  Through the decades Pinarello has kept abreast of the constantly developing technologies that have transformed the road bicycle from a skinny tubed steel machine with metal rims to ultra sleek and lightweight carbon fibre creations.

The Prince was Pinarello’s first full carbon fibre bike following on from the Magnesium framed Dogma model raced by teams such as Fassa Bortolo and Team Telekom.

The flowing fat tubes took a bit of getting used to, but more than fifteen years later the sculpted front and rear forks look very cool; this first generation Italian-made frame is carbon at its best.

The frame’s styling kicked Pinarello’s existing Onda FP theme up a notch with the even curvier Onda FPX. The curves of the fork and seat stays were continued on to the main triangle which used a fairly traditional non-sloping geometry but with a slightly bowed top tube.

The red, white and black colour scheme perfectly matched the Caisse d’Epargne team jerseys, and the bike was fitted with a full Campagnolo Record Groupset and Bora Wheels rounding-off the package perfectly. Uber cool!

The Prince debuted under Valverde and quickly set the world on fire – Valverde won the overall UCI Ranking, Fleche Wallonne and Liege Bastogne Liege on this very model.

Only recently retired from competition, Valverde had 133 professional wins. Prior to his Worlds win in 2018, he already held the record for most medals won at World Championships – he twice collected the silver medal in the World Championships, in 2003 and 2005, as well as the bronze four times in 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

By the time he had hung up his wheels, Valverde had entered thirty-one grand tours, finished twenty-six of them and placed in the Top 10 of a Grand Tour on twenty occasions.

Valverde served a suspension in 2010 and 2011 after a bag of his blood, containing EPO, was DNA matched by Italian anti-doping officials who had taken a blood sample at the 2008 Tour de France. Valverde admitted nothing. He apologized for nothing.

Love him or loathe him, we just had to get this Pinarello Prince for our collection!