Zwift’s latest update includes a new gravel frame from Pinarello, the Italian company’s first gravel frame in game. It’s the Pinarello Dogma GR, which is Pinarello’s race-focused gravel bike, sort of a “road bike in disguise” made for shorter, faster, less chunky gravel excursions:
On Zwift, you’ll need to be updated to game version 1.111+ to see this bike in the Drop Shop. You’ll also need to be at level 30+ with 1,100,000 Drops to buy it. Here’s how it’s described in the Drop Shop:
“End of Excuses. The Dogma GR carries that unmistakable Pinarello silhouette into gravel with lightweight carbon and race-tuned stiffness. It responds instantly when you surge and feels laser-precise at pace. Bold lines. Serious intent.”
See our master list of all frames in Zwift >
It’s rated 2 stars for aero 3 stars for weight, so we know it will perform decently well compared to other Zwift gravel bikes. But since Zwift’s 4-star system isn’t the most granular of performance measurements, we ran this frame through our precise tests to measure performance at nerd-level detail. Let’s dive in!
Note: test results below are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using Zwift’s stock gravel wheelset on the un-upgraded version of the frame.
Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance
Pinarello’s Dogma GR turns in a strong performance on the flats, beating all existing gravel bikes on tarmac apart from the new Cannondale SuperX LAB71 and Cervelo Aspero 5.
For comparison, the stock Zwift Gravel frame loses 145.4 seconds to our baseline Zwift Carbon frame across an hour of flat tarmac, while the (former) fastest gravel bike, the Cervelo Aspero 5, loses 111.2 seconds. The Dogma GR loses 112.8 seconds.
Climb Performance
The Dogma GR is a strong climber as well, essentially tying the Specialized Crux while falling just short of the new Cannondale SuperX LAB71.
The stock Zwift Gravel frame loses 161.8 seconds to our baseline Zwift Carbon frame across an hour of Alpe du Zwift climbing, while the new Cannondale SuperX LAB71 loses 118.7 seconds. The Dogma GR loses 122.1 seconds, putting it in 3rd (or tied for 2nd with the Crux at 122 seconds) among the gravel frames in our climbing test.
Jungle Performance
Of course, nobody really cares about how well a gravel frame performs on pavement, which is where we do our aero and climb testing (above). While those flat and climb tests help us tease out a frame’s aerodynamic capabilities and weight, when it comes to gravel bikes, people really want to know how fast they are on Zwift’s virtual dirt!
In that regard, the Pinarello Dogma GR turns in a strong performance, just 0.2 seconds behind the new Cannondale SuperX Lab71 and 0.8 seconds behind the Cervelo Aspero 5 across an hour of Jungle Circuit riding.
Upgrading Your Pinarello Dogma GR
Like all frames in Zwift, Pinarello’s Dogma GR can be upgraded in five stages. As a high-end race bike, each of the five stages results in a performance improvement. The Dogma GR upgrade stages are as follows:
- Ride 200km, pay 100,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 260km, pay 200,000 Drops for a weight reduction
- Ride 320km, pay 350,000 Drops for a drivetrain efficiency improvement
- Ride 380km, pay 500,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 440km, pay 750,000 Drops for a weight reduction
You can expect a fully-upgraded Pinarello Dogma GR to be approximately 28 seconds faster on a flat hour and 36 seconds faster on an hour-long climb vs a “stock” (un-upgraded) Dogma GR.
Conclusions
As both a strong climber and aero performer, Pinarello’s new Dogma GR beats every gravel bike in Zwift apart from the new Cannondale SuperX Lab71 and Cervelo Aspero 5. And it holds its own quite nicely against those two frames anyway, so if you’re a Pinarello fan, riding this as your virtual gravel whip may just be the winning move.
We’ll be adding this bike to the following posts soon:
- Speed Tests: Gravel, MTB, and Road Frames on Zwift Dirt
- Zwift Shopping Guide: What To Buy from the Drop Shop at Each Level (added)
- Master List of Zwift Bike Frames (added)
Questions or comments?
What do you think of Pinarello’s new Dogma GR in Zwift? Share below…
Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
Slower and heavier than the Cannondale, but costs more and with a higher level lock. IMO the Cannondale is better looking too. Can’t see this being particularly popular outside of die hard pinarello fans.
I think your mistaken, I believe this is the same level lock as the Cannondale, its the Cervelo that is a mid-tier level lock. But that difference alone though makes anything other than the Cervelo tough to justify unless your brand loyal to one of these other frames..
If you’re going for the Pinarello halo bike, this might be the gravel bike to choose as your 3rd bike to upgrade, I suppose (that’s why I went with the Crux instead of the Aspero 4 last fall).
I’m still waiting to see what happens with the Aspero 5 after the next update (will it be lighter? Less aero?) before deciding if I want to spend the time upgrading another gravel bike or if my level 5 Crux is good enough.
This is what I was thinking. That will be a year or so down the road as I’m only on upgrade 2 of my P74.
This is what I’ll be doing soon with Pinarello, I barely have enough drops for the Dogma F, which will go nicely with the new colorway from the camp, then save up again for the Gravel. I don’t think I’ll be starting Cannondale nor Specialized for a long time.
I am a Pinarello fan both in Zwift and IRL, so this will definitely be the gravel bike for me. As with the road bike, I have a fully upgraded Dogma F (2024), the bikes are far better than my ability so they won’t be holding me back in any way.
Eric, don’t you have also flat on gravel and climb on gravel tests? The Jungle is a hilly loop that evaluates probably the best allrounder gravel. And at the ends shows a get they are all the same (less than a second over one hour is basically within the error margin of such tests).
Maybe when (if) they bring back Gravel Mountain it would be a better flat gravel test.
The key takeaway is that basically they are all the same. And wheels play a more important role.
Lot of new gravel options. Once all of the new gravel bikes and wheels finish dropping, could you possibly update the speed test data or create a summary article for all the gravel and how they stack. I’m a bit lost now on which bike to buy lol.
Working on it now!
Sweet!!! Thanks Eric!!