The chairman of Italian bike brand, Pinarello, has hinted at a possible two-pronged approach to men's professional road team sponsorship in 2026, with its existing deal with Ineos Grenadiers and a strongly rumoured agreement with Q36.5 Pro Cycling on the horizon.
Speaking in Italian on the Tuttobiciweb podcast after being awarded the Premio Vincenzo Torriani at the Ghisallo cycling museum, Fausto Pinarello explained that his brand "could have two professional teams next year."
The company has provided its bikes to British WorldTour team, Ineos Grenadiers, formerly Team Sky, since its inception in 2010, winning seven out of eight Tours de France with the team in a dominant period between 2012 and 2019.
But amid a drier spell for the team and a host of behind the scenes politics pertaining to rider transfers and Pinarello's ownership, rumours have been circulating of a split at the end of the 2025 season, when the current contract is due for renewal.
The brand, founded by Giovanni Pinarello in 1953, was initially sold in 2016 to private equity firm, L Catterton, who then sold it again in 2023 to South African businessman and mining billionaire, Ivan Glasenberg.
Separately, Glasenberg has invested heavily in the cycling clothing brand, Q36.5, and reportedly has stakes in sports nutrition company Amacx and power meter pioneer SRM.
Notably, Q36.5 is the title sponsor Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, formerly known as Qhubeka NextHash in 2021 and Dimension Data between 2016 and 2019.
For the past two seasons, Q36.5 Pro Cycling have ridden aboard Scott Bikes, including the Scott Foil aero bike and Addict Ultimate RC lightweight race bike. This includes Tom Pidcock, who left Ineos Grenadiers for Q36.5 last season, despite the British multi-disciplinarian and two-time Olympic Mountain Bike XCO gold medallist having a personal sponsorship with the Italian brand.
A deal was struck with Pidcock whereby he continued to ride Pinarello for off-road, as he did for the recent Gravel World Championships, but switched to sponsor-correct Scott when racing on the road.
"It's not nice to see our rider use other bikes," Pinarello stated. "So there's a good chance that Tom will also use our road bikes [next year]."
However, notably, the sponsorship deal between Q36.5 and Scott Bikes is also due for renewal at the end of the season, and it's all but confirmed that Glasenberg will combine his two primary interests and Pinarello will take over that role in 2026.
This has led many to conclude that Pinarello would therefore step away from Ineos Grenadiers, but when asked more directly, Fausto confirmed, "We're going to double up."
This seemingly concrete confirmation adds weight to repeated suggestions that a deal is close, given to Cyclingnews on the ground at Il Lombardia last week, by sources close to the brand.
Cyclingnews also reached out to Pinarello's Chief Marketing Officer, Federico Sbrissa, to verify the claims, but he explained that Fausto was merely talking about "opportunities and options, not confirming anything officially," later adding that Fausto "likes to talk… including generating rumours to make the industry more fun."
So the rumour mill is swirling strongly, and confirmation looks close for the future of Pinarello's presence in the peloton, but the mystery hasn't been completely untangled yet.
