New Bike

Evelyn, I've never owned a Specialized, but I currently have 2 Cannondales and my son has one, and I can't say anything bad about any of them. They all been fine bikes and I've never had a problem with any of the shifting mechanisms or anything. I'm an amateur bike mechanic and maintain mine religiously, but I'm still impressed with the line. As a side note, I would get a bike with at least Shimano 105 equipment as a minimum. It's a step up from the Tiagra line and if you can afford it, either the 105 or the Ultegra are the way to go. The places to not skimp on equipment on a bike are the deraileurs and the wheels. Good shifting mechanisms are needed since they get quite a lot of use. And a nice lightweight set of wheels is worth its weight in gold. Light wheels will increase your speed and average mph more than anything. Rotating weight is more important than static weight. A pound off the wheels is worth 5 lbs off the frame.

Max

The Dolce is a woman's specific bike and has three models, the Comp (steel frame with Ultegra components), the Elite (aluminum frame with Ultegra Components) and the Sport models (aluminum frame with mostly Sora components). Cannondale makes to many models to make any kind of assessment either. Which models are you looking at and what, specifically, are you buying a bike for? Road? Triathlon? Training and Triathlon? Training, triathlon, and tours?

I'm looking at the sport model, to be used for training and triathlon. But, I have to watch my budget, boy going to college and all that. The Dolce seemed like a good entry level bike.
I'll test ride it this Sunday along with the Cannondale.

I tend to think you'll get more bang for the buck with Specialized over Cannondale, at least thats what I found when I was bike shopping. Cannondale can cost a bit more because all of the frames are hand made. So if you compare an equally equipped Cannondale and Specialized, the Specialized will usually be less expensive. But don't forget about fit, that's just as important. When I bought my Specialized Allez, my friend bought the Cannondale R300. She got Sora, I got Tiagra and some 105 components. She also paid about $200 more than I did, and then paid a crazy amount to have the shifters changed to Tiagra. The bikes were also both 50cm, but the Cannondale felt bigger then the Specialized.

Make sure you ride everything in your size and decide that way if you can.