Top Gear’s Richard Hammond Races (and Crashes) a Pinarello Dogma F8

I’m not much of a car person–hence all the bike related stuff–but when a car show showcases a Pinarello Dogma F8, I pay attention. On this week’s episode of Top Gear, the third episode of season 22, Richard Hammond gushes over and rides the fully featured, super light “£9,000” Pinarello. Watch the other fellows pick it up, and you know they’re rather surprised at the technological marvel that is the Dogma. Hammond even discusses the Di2 shifters at one point. Pretty cool.

If you haven’t seen Top Gear before, basically these three blokes (British vernacular) lay out a race course and choose three different vehicles to get them to the end point first. There’s also some other stuff about tracks and engines and cars and stuff. This episode sees the fellows racing across St. Petersburg by car, bike, and some sort of hovercraft. Hammond takes the Pinarello on an 18-mile ride . . . well, until he has an untimely run-in with the trolley tracks and the rear derailleur snaps off.

Perhaps the funniest bit from the episode is Hammond’s kit. This bike is super light, so they ladened it down with cameras and a pannier–the cameras I understand, but the pannier I’m struggling with. And I think my 6-year-old nephew has a more advanced dinosaur helmet from Target than Hammond wears.

Funny stuff, and I’ll try not to ruin the rest of the episode for you. But watch the traffic. Riding in St. Petersburg is no joke–look how many times Hammond almost gets hit when he’s owning the lane. This really proves a point about the need for bike infrastructure and motorist/cyclist education.

So where can you catch the episode? If you’re in the UK, you can use the BBC iPlayer to watch it: Season 22, Episode 3. If you’re in the states or otherwise, tune in to the rerun on BBC America this Saturday (Jan 31), catch it on Hulu Plus (soon to be released), or you can buy the episode through Amazon. I’m sure there are also other ways to watch it, but tisk, tisk, tisk.