John Rees wrote:
My opinion is the Cannondale is the better bike for road riding and the
Tri you want it for. But not well suited for loaded touring.

Take a look at these (or any bike) and ask yourself how you are going to
put a rack and panniers on the bike. The Cannondale is a CAAD4 frame,
and although there appear to be small holes on the rear dropouts for
mounting a rack, the length of the chanistays make a rack and bags
uncomfortable. They are too short and you will be kicking the panniers
with your heels all the time.

I just got back from my latest bicycle camping tour with my Cannondale
R800 'criterium-style' close coupled frame. The rear rack is attached
to those "small holes on the rear dropouts" and I have no problems with
heel clearance on my rear panniers.

Touring bikes tend to have a longer wheelbase, and a lot of that is in
the distance between the seat tube and the rear hub.

The Specialized has front and rear rack mounts.But, it's hard to imagine
putting much on either end. It has a compact frame and short chainstays
as well. Racing bikes make uncomfortable tourers. Not only will you be
having troubles with the bags, but it will be pretty twitchy with all
that weight on it.

That hasn't been my experience with my Cannondale. I've had other bikes
with a more typical touring geometry, but the short wheelbase Cannondale
is the one I prefer to use for touring. It has a very solid feel with
the panniers loaded for camping and I hardly notice the load except for
the way it slows me down when going uphill.
The only disadvantages I notice are that I'm restricted from using tires
much over 25 mm wide and I can't fit full fenders (but the rear rack
serves as a partial fender and I put a water deflector under the
downtube to minimize spray from the front wheel).