The more I think of it, the more I realize this is really the end of an era. 2009 will be the first year in 20 some-odd years that Cannondale will not be offering a full aluminum bike. And they've gone and tarted up their only aluminum offering with a slack head tube and passé carbon seat stays. I'm disappointed in the decisions they made for their entry-level offerings. It used to be that any Cannondale elite road bike was a true race bike. No longer.

UPDATE: Well placed sources tell me I was wrong to read into the bikeradar.com report that the CAAD9 was discontinued.