Pope Francis auctions off his Pinarello Dogma F12

In 2021, the then newly crowned Giro d'Italia champion, Egan Bernal, had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis, and during that meeting the Colombian gave him as a gift a completely personalized Pinarello Dogma F12 with the colors of the Argentine flag, the coat of arms of the Vatican City, and all kinds of details. The same bike is now being auctioned on the Catawiki platform.

The Pinarello Dogma F12 of Pope Francis goes up for auction

The cyclist from Ineos Grenadiers, a declared Catholic, described his meeting with the Pope in 2021 as "the most beautiful experience", even above his victories in the Tour or the Giro. And one of the most shared images of that meeting was the one where Bernal was delivering this special edition of the same Pinarello Dogma F12 with which he won back then.

The bike was the top-of-the-line version of that year, with the complete Shimano Ultegra groupset and extremely light caliper brakes that surely more than one would like to recover for their current models. But it was personalized in detail with the white and blue colors of the Argentine flag, in honor of the Pope's origin, the coat of arms of the Vatican City, and the name of the pontiff in Italian.

But now that bike will change hands on March 24, the date on which its current auction will close.

The price of this bike has been estimated between €25,000 and €35,000, and at the time of writing this news, the highest bid in the auction is €8,500.

Here is the direct link to bid on it, not every day you have the opportunity to have a bike blessed by the Pope.