Salsa Cutthroat for Gravel Racing?
I'm curious about what the forum thinks. Salsa has come out with the Cutthroat which appears to be a kind of hybrid between a gravel bike and a mountain bike. It's got a longer wheelbase than their Warbird and accepts wider tires. It's essentially a drop-bar mountain bike.
The route of the Dirty Kanza has maybe 60 or 70 miles that might be somewhat easier to ride on a mountain bike. It also has at least that much distance that probably favors a "traditional" gravel bike.
Lots of questions for discussion, but among them . . .
Does a drop bar mountain bike have the same aero disadvantages as a flat bar mountain bike?
How much would wider tires slow the bike down on easy gravel sections?
Does the Cutthroat make sense on a rocky course like the DK200? Or is there too much speed advantage for the Warbird / gravel bike?
And, it seems to me, that fatigue is what slows you down in the last 50 miles of Dirty Kanza. Would the longer wheelbase and wider tires of the mountain bike provide a comfort advantage that could pay off in those last miles?
What do you think?