+1 Specialized has a tendency of doing things their own way which usually emphasizes performance and racing. The Sirrus started life as a budget racing bike. This happens to be an 88 Sirrus:



and this is the same model bike roughly 20 years apart:



The '88 has a very lively responsive ride and the 07 is what I would describe as more stable, but I'd have no qualms riding or racing in a century on either bike.