Having entered the scalpel market on the birth of the Scalpel Si (Race) and owned all versions since then til to now... I think I can offer some worthwhil advice.
Their jump from old lefty to new ocho was designed on their hardtail and never a scalpel. It changed the head angle enough to ruin the bike in my opinion. I went from loving the Si Race to forever wondering why the new bike with fork improvement was such a houndog. Up hills had too much front wheel. Downhill the bike was less stable than my first generation Si. The amazing fork was noted on flatter terain but then I couldnt get enough kick in to the bike. It felt sloshy compared to the bike I had loved.The fork was actially the bikes problem. the Ocho came with a whopping spacer that previosuly wasnt there and head angles and heights had changed with the nose now further from the ground. You needed to own the year before to know/feel this though and early reviews didnt pic it up. The truth is the model before the ocho rode better. Obviously the later bikes went with a frame redesign which fixed everything and some.
There's also no real wrong choice here though, and you kind of said the Cannondale didnt sit right so... hopefully some extra confidence in pushing button on Specialized. But if you can find a 2015 Cannondale Race, the thing was special in a stage race environment.
