Originally Posted by digibud

I'm only familiar with the trek and giant line and both of them have some really nice hybrids. I wouldn't be at all concerned with drop bars at this point. After a year or two of a high quality hybrid many people naturally find that they are being held back by the upright position and want more speed. Some never do and that has to be OK too. You can get a pretty nice hybrid in the upper ranges of any of the big three and if you want to go further up you can add some custom wheels. At the very least you can replace the stock tires with something lighter.
As always, a perfect fit with an appropriate stem trumps anything else. LBS often fail to do serious fitting on lower end bikes but the right stem length to ensure there isn't too much pressure on hands is IMHO the most critical part of bike fit. G'luck.