To answer your question, no it's not too good to be true. What you're paying for is the frame, the parts, and pretty much nothing else. No massive marketing campaign, no distributor margin, dealer margin, no pro sponsorship... you get the picture.
I bought a Dolan Hercules, which I believe is the predecessor to the l'etape, from a form member. Wonderful bike, loved it (only criticism would be that the frame size was a little small for me. Be wary of the sizing with sloping top tube).
My son has a Hercules still, and races it regularly, it's survived numerous crashes, and still looks stunning. The finish is in another league compared to normal carbon bikes from the mainstream brands. Terry Dolan made a bike for Wiggo when he was 'between teams' or at least before Sky got around to sending him a PInarello. He's made bikes for a lot of top racers.
Dolan are very well known in amateur and youth racing, for making great bikes which don't break the bank. Spec wise you get probably 2-3 gruppo's up compared with mainstream brands for the price point, and I'd say frame wise, you get at least the same again, i.e. 3 echelons up from mainstream. By the way, my son's bike, with Rival 22, and Mavic Aksiums, weighed in at just under 8kg, without pedals and cages. Now he's upgraded the wheels, we should be around 7.5 kg.
If you live within reach of Dolan, you'd be crazy not to buy from them, since you can go in, get sized up, and they'll make sure it fits you much better than most bike shops, to the extent that you probably won't need a bike fit.
Disclaimer here, I have no association with Dolan, in fact, may very soon be in competition with them! Damn and blast, where's that delete key!
