I got a chuckle out of the one rider describing the Huffy as "It feels like a race bike." Um, because it is a race bike? "Feels a bit stiffer [than normal/others]." No kidding! It's as if it's a race bike!
He can also go and tell Ben Serotta that his bike's handling/geometry feels iffy on descents, because Serottas, as we all know, have flawed geometry and crashed all the time in the Tour and the Giro. Get real.
He did truck it up a bunch of long and steep climbs over 100 miles in a 39-21, and out of the saddle a lot (lower back hates that), so he's legit there. I can confirm the lack of fun that is a 42-21 low in grind mode up a gradient steeper than 5%.
Always good to see those old war horses out on the road--they're bikes, meant to be ridden! I understand the "frozen in time" comparison of new and old, but some 7403 dual-pivot side pull calipers with modern pads, and a 13-26T cassette would address its era-specific setup while remaining well within its period in time. And that's not even considering putting a full complement of R8000 or R9100 on it and remedying everything completely.
I like the new SuperSix for a number of aesthetic reasons, with the main one being Cannondale keeping the tubing slender. Lugged steel always looks cool against its modern carbon brethren. And for its part, a modern carbon race bike, among a fleet of steel, looks every part the apex predator that it is.