Can any bike justify a £12.5k price? The new Pinarello Dogma can, despite only marginal improvements

At the launch of the latest, greatest Dogma F I was slightly lamentatious about the fact that, on paper, it wasn’t actually any better than the old one. Marginal CDA improvement, and a few grams shed, plus the addition of quite a bulbous ‘aero keel’ fore of the bottom bracket. Nothing much to write home about.

After throwing a leg over and smashing about in the Dolomites for a few hours in truly biblical rain my initial misgivings did begin to dissolve like so much sugar. A launch ride is usually designed to showcase the best of the bike in a landscape designed to wow, and it did very much that; the handling was superbly good, and the climbing characteristics sublime, but initial impressions on a press trip don’t a good review make.