Cannondale Synapse as a race bike????????

JesseD

I am looking to build up a new bike for the 2016 season for road races and crits and have been looking at the geometry on the Cannondale Synapse I think the 56cm will be a good fit for me. The top-tube is the right length as is the head-tube and the stack and reach mirror the set up I have on my now winter bike which after a bike fit I find really comfortable, basically the contact points will all be exactly the same..

My concerns are that the synapse is designed to be more of a long distance bike and won’t be reactive enough to be used as a crit bike or to race on, but am I completely barking up the wrong tree?

This year I raced on a “sportive” bike (Felt Z75) which whilst ok, has quite a long wheelbase and felt a little vague cornering in crits and wasn't great for sprinting on (felt to relaxed), however the wheelbase on the Synapse is 1.2cm shorter than the Felt but 1cm longer than the SuperSix, and the head-tube angles on the Z75 and Synapse are the same, but the head tube angle on the SuperSix is steeper.

I did look at the SuperSix but the geometry just doesn’t suit me, the reach is too long and stack is too low so I would need a 100mm stem (currently have a 110mm) and probably around 35mm of spacers (which look awful, I currently have the stem slammed which I prefer).

So does anyone race on a Synapse and if so how do you find it? Does it steer and react through the corners ok? Is it stiff enough in a sprint?

Are there any other bikes I should be considering?

I need a 56cm TT, about a 180cm HT, stack to be around 580mm and reach to be close to 385mm, plus I am not looking at high end framesets so aluminium is fine or second-hand mid-range carbon.

Thanks all