I really enjoyed my CAAD 9. It felt very fast and stiff in terms of acceleration and climbing, yet it was not an overly harsh ride. It's my permanent Zwift/trainer bike now, but that's only because the carbon fork steerer has a little groove in it, so I no longer ride it on the road.
I would recommend maximizing the tire width, as much as you can. I have 25's on mine, but they inflate to 28 mm on my rims. The clearance is very tight.