Great questions. As someone who has owned and ridden all three generations of Domane frames, seen the weight from the first to the latest gain a pound, and gone from stuffing 32mm tires on the first for grins to 40mm gravel tires as an adventure set of wheels on the current, all I can say is the current one goes more places and is more fun to ride. I would add in faster, adjusted for the fact that my 63 year old legs are not quite what they were 7 years ago.