So I've been riding around (almost always on the road) for the past 5
years on a non-suspension Giant sedona mountain bike I bought used at
the time (no idea how used). A car mashed the rims while it was
parked, I had the bike store fix it with whatever was cheapest. I've
since put slick tires on it. The gears are kinda clonky and the brakes
seem fairly non-responsive if the roads are wet or going down a steep
hill. I've become pretty enthusiastic about biking in the last two
years, I ride about 2000 km a year mostly for transportation but like
going on long day rides (130 km was the highest so far, but I would
probably enjoy going further if the bike was slightly more
comfortable) and basically exploring around on weekends. I figure it
is time to buy a real road bike, nice new and shiny

The new bike will not likely be used for day-to-day urban riding
because I don't want it to get stolen - so I'll use the old bike for
that. I'd like to use a new bike for multi-day touring - I've never
tried this before, and my first trip would likely be a week long
minimally packed trip (stay in motels not camp). I'd like to have the
option of using it for camping touring though. I would also probably
use it for long day rides, either by myself or club rides. I'd like to
be able to try out racing or a triathlon, but that wouldn't be the
primary purpose of the bike.

Any ideas for what to look for? I've never ridden a road bike before.
I had a ten-speed as a teenager and the falls I took on it scared me a
bit from skinny tires (I'm not the world's most balanced person!) but
I imagine good road bikes are much more stable than that was. I went
to the LBS recently and test rode a Cannondale R400. I'm 5'11" and
female, and I tried a 56 cm bike which seemed a good height but the
reach seemed a bit much even though they changed the handlebar stem to
a shorter one for my test ride. I really didn't get to take it for
much of a spin, the bike store is located in a busy urban downtown
area, and while I'm quite comfortable riding my own bike in the area
I'm not so balanced on the new one (as an aside, I also find I can
only balance one handed on my bike with my left hand off but not vice
versa) Plus speed is constrained by the cars moving slower than a bike
would and no open lane. It totally threw me having the brakes on the
front rather than on the top and I nearly took out a pedestrian in the
intersection because I found it weird to brake. Are they easy to get
used to? I imagine I would like better having the choices of riding
positions (only one on my current bike makes for sore long rides) and
also the lower position would be nice going into the wind.

My budget is ideally around $1000 Cdn (750 US) but I would likely
double it if I found a bike I really fell in love with, and would be
good for future touring, and was a good deal. The 2003 Cannondale R400
was 999 on sale end of season, but they had a 2002 that appealed to me
more aesthetic wise (it was orange ) for 849 but only had it left
in 50 or 58. I thought the 58 would be too big so didn't test ride it
(they didn't have the larger one set up)

I also tried a more commuter-style road bike by Cannondale that just
had straight handlebars, (don't remember the model) but in addition to
thinking I would like drop bars if I could get used to them, the big
ring on it didn't seem very big.

What would be a good entry level touring bike to try out? While the
touring bike would be more comfortable for longer loaded rides, is it
more slower than a traditional road bike when I just want to go fast
unloaded? (I'm sure I'll notice a big difference going away from the
mountain bike anyway) The R400 did not have a place for front racks -
I'd only need back for credit card touring but front would be nice if
I decide to go across the country and I think the rack still needed
just to clamp on on the back, as well some of the bikes seemed like
they would be awkward to equip with fenders, which would seem useful
for when it rains in the middle of the tour Do clip on fenders work
okay?

Any tips on bike models to try, questions to ask, things to test out,
and what things to look for would be appreciated. I really am just
happy to ride and don't notice too much things like what the
components are so I wouldn't notice much difference between the models
on a short test ride.