Originally Posted by
smashndash
For example, can I pedal the same through corners? Can I change lines quickly if other people swerve? Is the geometry well suited to frequent sprints? Basically, is an expensive aero bike better than an Allez Sprint in every way, or are there some compromises?
You begin to dance around a wildly subtle point about handling which points to an answer that requires loads of ride and what you're used to. I once pulled an utterly impossible move on a giant in turn 3 at a twilight crit. I hit a painted crosswalk, and the front wheel broke loose. But somehow, as I was going down, I righted it. Could I have done this on some other bike? Maybe. Maybe not. And that isn't saying it was the bike that made the move possible. I don't think it was. But had I been on something else for the first or fortieth time, I'm sure to have gone done. But having put years and years and years on that particular geometry and handling I pulled something off that saved my butt.
In the end though those situations are mercifully rare. Position and comfort trumps everything else. And the bike really doesn't matter much beyond that it functions.