Originally Posted by
jonestr
I dont get why it would be harder to brake from the hoods? Some of your bias towards flat bars probably comes from the fact that you have an MTB background. I have on as well and my first time on a cross bike all I could think of is why are the tires so skinny and why am I on a drop bar. I got over this pretty quickly and really enjoy the challenge of doing technical stuff on cross bike and am usually in the drops when stuff gets serious.
As to the argument about carrying with a flat bar, a stem grab is fine if you are riding by yourself, but if you are in a pack and taking hits from the side and from behind, a grip on the drop is much more stable.
who cares if Frischy took silver on flat bars. I think it is more of an issue of what he was more comfortable with after racing MTBs for a long time.
You cant get maximum braking because there's only so much pressure your fingers can apply to the brake levers when you're on the hoods. When you're on the drops, the angle of fingers with the brake levers is such that you can apply maximum brakes. I'd imagine you could better modulate the brakes from that angle too.
With flat bars, again you can get max braking because of the angle the braking fingers have with the brake levers.