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In 1952, the Italian Giovanni Pinarello (1922-2014) was faced with a major dilemma. After the Italian had to hand over his place for the Giro d'Italia to the young Italian Pasqualino Fornara, he was offered 100,000 Italian lire by his sponsor Bottecchia to start his own bicycle factory. However, for this he had to give up his passion, namely cycling.
Between 1952 and 1960, Pinarello began making his own bicycles, which he promoted to small local teams. With the climax in 1957 when the first local team with a Pinarello bicycle enters the national competition, the team with this honor was the Italian la Padovani. After sponsoring many other small teams, Pinarello sponsored a professional team for the first time in 1960.
The real difference for Pinarello was made by Guido de Rosso, from Molteni. With his victory in the Tour d'Avenir, he also put Pinarello on the international cycling map. This was also the first professional victory with a Pinarello bike. This success was further reinforced in 1975 by the Italian Fausto Bertoglio, who won the Tour of Italy in that year. He did this for team Jollyceramica sponsored by Pinarello.
In 1980, Pinarello linked up with Inoxpran, a well-known user of stainless steel. Together team Inoxpran was founded and Pinarello started developing bicycles with stainless steel as the material for the frame. This was also the first time that the Pinarello logo appeared on the team's shirt. After the successful year in 1980, 1981 became even better for Inoxpran. The team won two of the three Grand Tours, the Tour of Spain and the Tour of Italy. A further boost to Pinarello's popularity came in 1984 when the American rider; Alexi Grewal won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games on a Pinarello bicycle.
